New Delhi. One of India’s leading airlines, Jet Airways has been awarded the “Best Indian Airline” award at the prestigious Business Traveller Awards 2008. The airline received the award on the basis of votes cast by the UK readers of Business Traveller magazine, to reward those companies whose products and services they value as discerning business travellers.

Jet Airways Chairman, Mr Naresh Goyal, has also announced a plan to work together with Mr Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines late on Monday night, as severe operational losses were affecting both these leading domestic airlines of India due to the worldwide recession and the spike in oil prices.

According to Mr Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO, Jet Airways, “This award stands testament to the rapid strides Jet Airways has made since the commencement of its services to London Heathrow in 2005. Within a relatively short span of time, Jet Airways’ reputation for service excellence has seen the airline emerge as the most preferred carrier among Business travellers on the UK-India sector.”

Business Traveller is the leading magazine for the frequent business traveller, with ten editions worldwide including the UK, US, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, China, Germany, Denmark, and Africa.

The airline, which is participating at the India Aviation 2008 show at Hyderabad, currently operates a fleet of 84 aircraft, which includes 10 Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 11 Airbus A330-200, 52 classic and next generation Boeing 737-400/700/800/900 aircraft and 11 modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. Jet Airways operates over 385 flights daily, and with an average fleet age of 4.34 years, the airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleet
in the world.

The airline currently operates four daily services to London Heathrow from three gateway points in India: two daily services from Mumbai and one each from Delhi and Amritsar respectively. Jet operates its stateof- the-art, wide-body Boeing 777-300ER (on its services from Mumbai and Delhi), and Airbus 330-200 aircraft (on its services from Amritsar) from London.

The airline has flights to 64 destinations across India. Jet also operates A330s between India and its Brussels European hub in Belgium and onto Canada and North America. The company plans to deploy the additional A330s on regional and long haul international flights. It also flies to international destinations including New York (both JFK and Newark), San Francisco, Toronto, Brussels, London (Heathrow), Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The airline plans to extend its international operations to other cities in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia in phases with the introduction of additional wide-body aircraft into its fleet.

In May this year Jet Airways took delivery of its latest Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The delivery is from an order for a total of 15 Airbus A330-200 aircraft placed between 2005 and 2007. An initial order for 10 aircraft was signed in October 2005 and this was increased to 15 in December 2007.

Today’s A330-200 is the airline’s seventh owned aircraft directly received from Airbus. The first aircraft was delivered in April 2007.

Jet Airways has come a long way since its first flight in 1993. It’s one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, and from October 31, the airline says it will change the way people fly internationally for business or leisure.

Jet is deploying new aircraft on new East Asian routes to serve Hong Kong and to expand services to Europe and West Asia. The aircraft will be configured in two classes with a total of 220 seats.

The customised aircraft for Jet Airways will be configured with 30 seats in Première in the Herringbone configuration’ with seats that electronically converts to an enormous 180 degree flat bed with lumbar support and massage systems.

“The introduction in 2006 of the A330 into our existing fleet was seamless”, said Mr Goyal. “The A330 fits in well with our strategy to operate fuel efficient aircraft which also have low operating costs. The aircraft also provides our customers with the most modern and comfortable cabin in its sector.”

“India is experiencing the world’s fastest passenger traffic growth in the near term and we are delighted to be a part of these exciting times through our partnership with Jet Airways.

The A330 is a fantastically efficient aircraft, and also offers leading standards of passenger comfort,” said Mr Tom Enders, Airbus CEO.

With a true wide-body fuselage allowing very high comfort standards, the A330-200 is able to accommodate seat and class configurations to suit diverse customer requirements. It has a range of up to 6,750 nm / 12,500 km with a full passenger load.

Its large under-floor cargo holds can also carry standard pallets and containers side-by-side. It also has the excellent operational flexibility necessary to serve a wide range of route structures, providing operators with very low operating cost per seat. Its proven record of economy and superior passenger comfort provides operators with a significant competitive advantage in the market today. Airbus is an EADS company.

Jet also has wholly owned subsidiary called JetLite, which was acquired in April 2007. Positioned as a value based Airline, JetLite promises to offer value for money fares. JetLite currently operates a fleet of 24 aircraft, which includes 17 Boeing 737 series and 7 Canadian Regional Jets 200 Series. JetLite operates 141 flights every day to 30 domestic destinations and 2 international destinations (Kathmandu and Colombo).

With the acquisition of JetLite, Jet today has a combined fleet strength of 109 aircraft and offers its customers a schedule of 526 flights every day.