Jet Airways

The airline was granted a scheduled airline status on 14 January 1995. It entered into a marketing agreement with KLM the same year. In 1996, the airline placed a $375 million order for four 737-400 and six 737-800 aircraft from Boeing, which were delivered between 1997 and 2000. Jet Airways was the first airline in Southeast Asia to order the 737-800. In the financial year 1996–97, the airline carried 2.4 million passengers and had a market share of 20 percent, second highest after state-owned Indian Airlines. By this time, the airline had a fleet of twelve Boeing 737 aircraft, operating 83 daily flights to 23 domestic destinations. In 1997, the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Investment (CCFI) of the Government of India announced that foreign airlines would no longer be permitted to take an equity stake in joint ventures with Indian aviation companies, reversing the Government's earlier policy which had allowed carriers such as Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways and Lufthansa to hold a maximum 40% equity stake in their joint ventures with Indian partners. In October 1997, as per this directive, Naresh Goyal took back control of Trade Winds from its foreign investors.

At the Paris Air Show in June 1999, Jet Airways announced an order worth approximately $550 million for ten Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The airline purchased its first Boeing 737-400 simulator from CAE Inc. in 2001. By April 2001, the airline fleet had grown to 30 aircraft and was operating over 195 flights daily to 37 destinations within India. Jet Airways suffered losses for the first time since its establishment in financial year 2001–2002 as demand fell and costs increased. It was announced as the launch customer for the Embraer 175 at the Farnborough air show in 2002, with an order for ten aircraft and ten options worth $520 million; unfortunately, the deal was subsequently held in abeyance due to the airline's financial difficulties and eventually fell through. In 2003, the Indian government decided to allow private carriers to operate international services to countries in South Asia, such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, and Jet Airways began preparations to launch international services. The airline launched its first international flight in March 2004 from Chennai to Colombo.

Jet Airways was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and became a public company on 28 December 2004. After the Government of India lifted the foreign ownership limits on Indian airlines to 49% from the previous 40%, the airline moved to raise funds via an IPO. The company's IPO in February 2005—which offered 20% of the airline's stock—saw strong interest from investors leading to oversubscription in retail, non-institutional and institutional tranches and raised ₹18.9 billion, instantly making Naresh Goyal a paper billionaire. Towards the end of 2004, the government announced that privately owned scheduled carriers meeting certain criteria could operate to all countries apart from those in the Middle East. Thereafter, in January 2005, the Ministry of Civil Aviation granted rights to Jet Airways to operate services to London Heathrow. The airline started its first international, long-haul flight to London in May 2005 with two-class Airbus A340-300s sub-leased from South African Airways.

Growth and expansion

In January 2006, Jet Airways announced its intention to acquire Air Sahara for US$500 million in an all-cash deal; however, the deal fell through in June 2006. On 12 April 2007, the deal was back on track with Jet Airways agreeing to pay ₹14.5 billion (US$150 million). On 16 April 2007, Air Sahara was renamed as JetLite and was marketed between a low-cost carrier and a full-service airline. JetLite became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jet Airways. In August 2008, Jet Airways announced its plans to integrate JetLite into Jet Airways. In October 2008, Jet Airways laid off 1,900 of its employees, who were later reinstated after the Ministry of Civil Aviation's intervention. In October 2008, the airline entered into an alliance with rival Kingfisher Airlines for code-sharing on domestic and international flights, collaboration on frequent-flyer program, and sharing crew and ground handling equipment. On 8 May 2009, Jet Airways launched another low-cost brand, Jet Konnect. It operated a fleet of Boeing 737 Next Generation and ATR 72 aircraft and operated on profitable short-haul routes with higher passenger load factors.

Consolidation

In the third quarter of 2010, Jet Airways became the largest airline in India with a passenger market share of 22.6%. In July 2012, the airline officially sought government approval to join Star Alliance. Jet Airways is not a member of Star Alliance as of 2019 In June 2011, it became the first domestic airline in India to ban meat products and liquids from check-in baggage. Jet Airways merged the JetLite brand into Jet Konnect on 25 March 2012 and began offering business-class seats after the demise of Kingfisher Airlines. In 2013, Etihad Airways planned to buy a stake in the airline following the government's announcement in September 2012 that foreign airlines could take a stake of up to 49% in Indian carriers. On 24 April 2013, Jet announced that it was ready to sell a 24% stake in the airline to Etihad for US$379 million. The deal, which was expected to be signed in January 2013, was deferred, and was eventually inked on 12 November 2013. Naresh Goyal retained 51% ownership of the stock. In 2013, the airline lowered prices and entered into a fare war with low-cost carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet due to falling passenger demand. In February 2013, the airline's market value dropped by ₹4.84 billion (US$50 million) due to falling share prices. Jet Airways made profits in the third quarter of the financial year 2013–14, after posting losses over the previous year. The airline announced on 11 August 2014 that it would phase out Jet Konnect by the end of the year as part of plans to reposition itself as a uniform full-service operator. On 1 December 2014, Jet Konnect was fully merged with Jet Airways, making it the third full-service airline in India besides Air India and Vistara. In December 2015, Jet Airways announced the closure of its scissor hub at Brussels Airport by March 2016 and the inauguration of a new hub at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, effective 27 March 2016. As of February 2016, it was the second-largest airline in India after IndiGo, with a 21.2% passenger-market share.

Bankruptcy and cessation of services

As of November 2018, Jet Airways was reported to have a negative financial outlook due to increasing losses. In March 2019, it was reported that nearly a fourth of Jet Airways' aircraft inventory was grounded due to unpaid lease rates. On 25 March 2019, Mr. Naresh Goyal and his wife Anitha Goyal stepped down from the board of directors.

On 5 April 2019, Indian Oil Corporation stopped supplying fuel to Jet Airways, citing non-payment of dues as the emergency funds have still not been credited. On 17 April 2019, Jet Airways suspended all flight operations after lenders spurned a ₹4 billion emergency funding request, and its membership in the International Air Transport Association (IATA) was suspended too. On 17 June 2019, after receiving no acceptable offers from Etihad Airways and Hinduja Group, lenders of Jet Airways decided to refer the company to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for bankruptcy proceedings with debt amounting to $1.2 billion.

As the group faced insolvency proceedings in the Netherlands after failing to pay two creditors, the NCLAT allowed cross-border insolvency proceedings, stating that the "Dutch Trustee (Administrator) would work in cooperation with the 'Resolution Professional of India.'"

Destinations

According to its website, in 2016, Jet Airways served 57 destinations—37 domestic and 20 international—across 15 countries in Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East. The airline had its primary hub in Mumbai and secondary bases in Delhi and Bangalore.

The airline's first international destination, introduced in March 2004, was Colombo, served from Chennai. Launched in 2005, London was the airline's first long-haul destination. Since 2007, Jet Airways has had a scissors hub at Brussels Airport for onward transatlantic connections to North America, which was replaced by Amsterdam Airport Schiphol from 27 March 2016.

In 2008, the airline was forced to discontinue international routes due to losses sustained by the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession; it terminated services to San Francisco and Shanghai. The airline planned to restore the Mumbai–Shanghai route by the end of 2011, but it never materialised. In 2012, the airline withdrew flights to New York City and closed the Delhi–Milan route in 2013. On 1 March 2016, the airline announced the integration of domestic and international operations at Mumbai airport and moved its entire operations to the newly constructed Terminal 2.

Codeshare agreements

Jet Airways had codeshare agreements with the following airlines before ceasing their operations:

Controversies

Safety

Asmin Tariq, a contractor working for the airline as a security agent at Heathrow airport, was implicated in the foiled terror plot on 10 August 2006 to blow up several transatlantic airliners belonging to three different US airlines. Subsequently, the Governments of UK and Singapore sought security-related information from the Ministry of External Affairs of India on Jet Airways; clearance was further delayed to fly to the US. The US State Department gave the go-ahead for the airline to fly to the US on 15 November 2006.

In August 2014, two pilots of Jet Airways were suspended after a plane carrying 280 passengers dropped 5,000 feet (1,500 m) mid-air en route from Mumbai to Brussels.

Customer care

On 2 December 2016, Jet Airways flight 9W7083 from Bhopal to Mumbai was held up by a large group of passengers headed for a wedding in Mumbai. There were allegations from other passengers that the wedding party was politically connected and attempted to coerce the cabin crew to disembark passengers so that additional members of their party could be accommodated. The airline, however, claimed it was a technical glitch in their booking system which led to overbooking.

Corruption

In 2016, Jet Airways was implicated in the Gupta family controversy in South Africa. Former African National Congress MP Vytjie Mentor alleged that members of the Gupta family had offered her the position of Minister of Public Enterprises on behalf of President Jacob Zuma, in exchange for her facilitating the cancellation of South African Airways' India route so Jet Airways could take it over.

Links to organised crime

On 12 December 2001, an internal memo from two Indian intelligence agencies—R&AW and IB—to the Home Ministry of India stated they had evidence that Jet Airways held intermittent contact with Dawood Ibrahim, Chota Shakeel, and other gangs of Indian organised crime, related to financial transactions. This information was leaked to the media and parliament proceedings were stalled. Subsequently, in 2016, reports emerged that the initial investment for Jet Airways had come through shell companies based in the Isle of Man and was heavily funded by prominent figures in Indian organised crime. This was documented in detail in the book A Feast of Vultures.

Accidents and incidents

1 July 2007: Jet Airways Flight 3307, an ATR 72-212A (registered VT-JCE)—operating on the Bhopal-Indore route—was involved in an accident caused by bad weather. While there were no fatalities amongst the 45 passengers and four crew members, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair and written off.