Jet may take on AI on Toronto, New York routes

The country’s largest private carrier Jet Airways plans to launch non-stop flights to Toronto and New York, a move expected to put pressure on national carrier Air India which offers services to both the destinations. The airline, in its proposal to the civil aviation ministry, has proposed to launch the new trans-Atlantic flights from Winter 2011.

Jet Airways may deploy B777-300 on the Delhi-Toronto route to offer more capacity. The airline currently flies to Toronto via its European hub in Brussels operating with A330 aircraft.

?The airline’s proposal is under consideration,? a civil aviation ministry official said.

A Jet Airways official spokesperson could not be contacted.

Government sources said that Air India is not in favour of allowing any private Indian carrier to operate non-stop services to New York and Toronto. The state-owned carrier is the only Indian carrier to operate non-stop flights to the two destinations.

A major part of Air India’s total losses has in the last few years come from its daily non-stop flights to New York from Delhi and Mumbai for losses to the tune of Rs 750 crore a year.

The Committee on Public Undertakings (CoPU), a Parliamentary panel, had last year took the government head on alleging that a disadvantage was caused to the national carrier in allocation of prime commercial routes which favored not only private airlines like Jet Airways and Kingfisher, but also foreign carriers like the Emirates.

?The civil aviation ministry should conduct a transparent review of the entire route and slot allocations to ensure that Air India was not put at any disadvantage,? the panel had said.

A Jet Airways executive, however said that there was enough space for us to operate flights to the two routes.

Jet Airways has argued that there is significant traffic on the Delhi-New York and Delhi-Toronto routes with Delhi and Mumbai becoming hubs. The airline expects to get feed from countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh for their long-haul flights.

“They would also get transfer passengers who fly to the US and Canada through the Gulf and Middle East. There is business rationale for Jet Airways to operate non-stop flights to Toronto and New York from Delhi,” Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) India head Kapil Kaul said.