Jet Airways in talks with oneworld to join alliance

Back in April I had speculated

While Jet Airways is adamant that they prefer to sign bi-laterals, I feel they should strongly consider joining the Oneworld alliance. Oneworld has a major gap in South Asia. It’s rival SkyTeam has recently signed up Vietnam Airlines. While the delay Air India entering the Star Alliance with support of Lufthansa may open up possibilities for Jet, I doubt Jet would like to antagonise the civil aviation ministry who also happens to be the boss of Air India. Oneworld and Jet Airways have synergies and entry will bring the much needed passenger feed to Jet.

Today, NDTV reports that Jet Airways is in talks with the oneworld alliance about joining the alliance. Jet Airways already has partnerships with oneworld founder British Airways, and will offer oneworld coverage of it’s crucially missing pan-India footprint and India to the middle-east and to south-east asia. The oneworld alliance will offer Jet desperately needed feed traffic.

Despite Jet Airway’s earning over half of its operating revenue from its international business, international operations have been the biggest source of losses for Jet, forcing the carrier to resort to leasing most of it’s Boeing 777-300ER fleet to foreign airlines Turkish Airlines THY, Gulf Air, and Oman Air.

About Devesh Agarwal

A electronics and automotive product management, marketing and branding expert, he was awarded a silver medal at the Lockheed Martin innovation competition 2010. He is ranked 6th on Mashable's list of aviation pros on Twitter and in addition to Bangalore Aviation, he has contributed to leading publications like Aviation Week, Conde Nast Traveller India, The Economic Times, and The Mint (a Wall Street Journal content partner). He remains a frequent flier and shares the good, the bad, and the ugly about the Indian aviation industry without fear or favour.

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