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Private carrier Jet Airways, which is launching its Mumbai-London flight on May 23, is looking at operating to secondary airports in the UK to start direct services in future.
"We have started studies on secondary airports like Manchester, Birmingham and Gatwick to operate direct services from Indian destinations," the airline's general manager (UK and Ireland) Dan Brewin told PTI in London, a day after Air-India launched its Amritsar-Birmingham flight.
In case the private carrier decided to launch services to these destinations, there would be no problem on the issue of bilateral air traffic rights, but "this can be done only when we acquire more aircraft". Brewin also did not rule out operating to Glasgow and Belfast, where there is a significant Indian population.
Jet Airways, which would launch its London service with wide-bodied Airbus A340-300E, is likely to acquire six B737-800 aircraft to its fleet over the next two quarters for domestic operations. The airline currently has 14 B737-800 aircraft in its total fleet of 42.
For its services to London and New York, it has leased three Airbus A340-300 aircraft from South African Airways, besides two Boeing 737-800 aircraft specifically for its South East Asia operations.
In view of the growing demand from travellers in the UK, Brewin said the London call centre of the airline would be shifted to India in the near future.
Brewin, who has been looking after a major portion of the airline's international operations, said the private carrier has recently entered into an agreement with the United
Airlines for ground handling at Terminal 3 of London's Heathrow Airport.
The agreement, which is subject to government approvals, entails codeshare and onward transit to Heathrow. It would enable Jet Airways to use the UA code to operate from India to the US via Brussels. This too would be subject to official nod for which the airline has already moved the governments of India, Belgium and the US, he said.
Brewin said the airline planned to add the second frequency to Heathrow by this winter and the second frequency to the US in the summer of next year. It also planned to make the Delhi-Singapore flight to a daily by this winter and add Hong Kong to its international network.
Replying to questions, the senior Jet Airways executive said the major challenge was to establish the airline in the international sector though it a was well-known brand in India.
Observing that there was a lot of capacity in the India-UK market, he said, "We will try to establish ourselves with a very superior product in the Club Premiere class (Business Class), which would be comparable with what is offered by international airlines in the sector. Along with the product, we will have the Indian hospitality and warmth".
To questions on the fare structure, Brewin said the airline would offer promotional fares on London-Delhi sector for three months, "but don't anticipate that we will have rock bottom fares as we will be offering high class services even in the Economy Class".
To further questions on how it would fix its fare structure, Brewin said the non-stop service between Heathrow and Indian destinations would have a "competitive advantage" over other airlines, especially those operating from the Gulf and carry a large chunk of passengers to the UK and the US.
"Our pricing strategy will be built in accordance with these factors," he said.
The Jet Airways official observed that the UK-US route has never seen a stabilisation in prices as it was a highly competitive market and said the India-UK sector would also see a similar trend.
He said the airline would be linking up with leading tour operators in Europe to attract tourist traffic to India and has decided to sell its services, including tourism packages and the 'Visit India' fares, through well-established Internet sites like 'Expedia', Travelocity and Opodo.