Jet withdraws four Kolkata flights

Jet Airways has withdrawn four flights from Kolkata to free aircraft that are urgently required to meet international commitments following the $339-million deal with Etihad Airways. Two more flights from the city will be taken off next month, reducing the number of daily departures from Kolkata to 24.

The Gulf carrier acquired 24% stake in Jet Airways to tap India, one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the world. While the deal ostensibly aims to combine the network of the two airlines that currently covers 130 destinations, it is essentially about rapidly increasing flights between Abu Dhabi and various points in India so that Jet gets to feed Europe- and US-bound passengers to Etihad and carry more Gulf-bound passengers as well as per a report in TOI.

Four domestic flights that have already been withdrawn are to Chennai, Lucknow, Bangalore and Delhi. According to airline sources, the flights from Kolkata got the axe as they registered poor yields and made sense to deploy them in sectors where demand is high. "The particular flights out of Kolkata may not have done badly. But if one looked at the entire rotation (five-six sectors that an aircraft does in a day), the yield was low, and hence, the call to deploy them in other sectors," an official explained.

With these flights off the radar, Jet has no connection to offer to Chennai and Lucknow from Kolkata. In the other two sectors, the daily frequency is down to two from three. From next month, two international flights out of Kolkata will be taken off. While Jet Airways was aggressive in introducing twice daily connections to Bangkok, it has decided to sacrifice both flights following poor yields due to severe competition in the sector.

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