Jet Airways to add 11 Boeing 737 planes

Feb 07, 2017: In a bid to regain its market share, Jet Airways is planning to add 11 Boeing 737 aircraft to its fleet, say media reports. The move follows a weak third quarter that also saw a slowdown in the West Asia market.

Jet Airways has a fleet of 114 planes, including 76 Boeing 737s, which it deploys on both domestic and short-haul overseas routes.

Sources said the airline would be inducting 11 aircraft on dry lease and these would be largely used for domestic operations.

Despite the domestic traffic growing over 20 percent, Jet Airways has been able to contribute little because its fleet size has remained flat over the last two years.

Most of the airline’s capacity addition has come through higher fleet utilisation and its domestic market share declined from 21.4 percent to 17.9 percent in 2016. While the Indian aviation industry saw passenger volume growing at 23 percent in Q3 FY17, Jet's traffic grew a mere 1 percent in the same quarter.

Its net standalone profit declined 70 percent to Rs 142 crore in Q3 FY17 on a year-on-year basis on account of higher costs.

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