Economic downturn has continued to hit the airlines with respect to the demand for air travel. India’s second-largest airline by market share, Jet Airways, is now planning to reduce its fleet.
As of now, the airline has 87 aircraft operating on domestic and international sectors. It was reported that Jet is planning to lease out around 15 from this fleet; however, the company has mentioned that no final decision has yet been taken on the number of aircraft to be reduced.
Jet Airways has initiated a restructuring programme to further reduce costs. The company is mulling to close some offices in metros that essentially handle ticketing and a centralised operation control centre in Mumbai resulting in job cuts of nearly 400. The company has earlier slashed nearly 30% of its flights and leased out several aircraft, like all other airlines, in past six months in view of the severe crisis in Indian as well as in worldwide aviation industry. Similarly, it has put a temporary halt to all its expansion plans.
A further reduction of its fleet is likely affect large number of Jet staff.