Jet to fly to US in mid-August

Jet Airways, India's first private airline that was scheduled to commence its inaugural flights to the United States from Thursday, has deferred the launch date. The first Jet flight to the American skies will now take off in the second week of August.

But Jet Airways, which has been caught in a controversy in the US, said that the postponement of its inaugural flight to America has nothing to do with the allegations levelled by a Maryland-based company by the name Jet Airways Inc against the airline.

"The postponement of our flight services to the US has nothing do with the fraud case filed against there. We have deferred the launch date because of procedural delays in getting the formal operating permit," Nandini Verma, Vice President, Public Relations at Jet Airways told rediff.com on Wednesday.

She said the airline has already filed for permission to operate flights between India and America with the US Department of Transport. But as per the modalities, the US DoT would issue approval only after it verifies the operating permits from the Director General of Civil Aviation in India.

Verma said the DGCA, the apex civil aviation body of the government of India, is meeting this week to consider the operating permit for Jet flights to the US.

"We expect to get the formal operating permit from the DGCA by this week-end. We will submit the details then to the US Department of Transport," she said.

The Jet official said that it takes at least six weeks for the US Department of Transport to give operating approval for any airline.

"So looking at that time-frame, we hope that the commencement of our US service would be by the second week of August," Verma said.

Currently, Jet Airways operates 275 flights to 47 destinations that span the length and breadth of India and to international destinations such as Colombo in Sri Lanka, Kathmandu in Nepal, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and London Heathrow, United Kingdom.

Early this year, airline announced plans to operate a three-times-a-week service on the India-Brussels-New York sector.

Though the airline had applied for permission to operate a daily service on the route, it was not given, as there are restrictions on the number of flights that can be operated on the India-Brussels route.

But as Jet Airways has been preparing for the US launch, a Maryland-based company in the US by the name Jet Airways Inc. came out with allegations saying the Indian company has links with terror outfit Al-Qaeda and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

Jet officials said they have already filed documents with the US Department of Transportation in response to the objections raised against it by the Maryland-based company.

Verma said that Jet Airways has also initiated legal proceedings in the US through a leading American law firm, Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP against the President & CEO Nancy Heckerman of Jet Airways Inc.

"The case can not hold up our flights to the US. Our services to the US will now begin with the new schedule we have set in," Verma added.