Jet Airways? low cost carrier arm JetLite (the erstwhile Sahara Airways) has applied for permission to the ministry of civil aviation to fly to seven destinations in the Gulf. These include Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Sharjah, Bahrain, Kuwait and Doha.
The airline before being taken over by Jet was operating flights to international destinations including Singapore, Malay and London. These operations had now been shut due to unviability, said JetLite chief executive Garry Kingshott.
The airline hopes to get some of the permissions in time to operate the routes by the first quarter of 2008. JetLite presently flies to only two international destinations, Colombo and Kathmandu.
The airline is primarily a Boeing 737 operator with 16 of such aircraft in operation while one is grounded. The carrier also has seven CRJs of which three are grounded.
Kingshott also added that the employee strength has been brought down to 2,100 from 4,300 earlier.
?When we took over Air Sahara they had 12 B737s in operation and they had placed orders for 10 from Boeing which are to be delivered by 2009,? Kingshott said on the JetLite fleet strength.
The company is also expected to post positive cash flows by the first quarter of 2008 but that is only if all their aircraft are operational and giving them the returns they are getting presently per aircraft, the chief executive said.
