Asia Bizz: India’s largest Airline, Jet Airways announced on March 20, 2012 that its low-cost arm JetLite will stop operating after being merged with the other no-frills brand, JetKonnect. The recent move is a part of the strategic rebranding and reconstruction exercise which was announced last July.
Sudheer Raghavan, the group chief commercial officer, said in a statement, “Effective March 25, JetLite will cease to operate separately, but will come under the JetKonnect brand, enabling guests to avail of a single superior in-flight product in the full service (Jet Airways) and low-fare categories.”
JetLite camed into being in the year 2007, after the takeover of Air Sahara in April 2007. The airlines used to contribute nearly three quarters of the group’s domestic revenue with the rest coming from JetKonnect.
JetLite used to operate 19 Boeing 737s and connected 31 domestic destinations apart from Kathmandu, with 123 flights in a day.
JetKonnect was launched in May 2009 and the merger plan was announced in July 2011.
KG Vishwanathan, the vice president of the group, said that the management is very clear that there will be only one brand in the low-fare arena and thats something which will emerge very clearly in the next one or two months.
