JetLite

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JetLite
IATA
S2		 ICAO
RSH		 Callsign
JETLITE
Founded 1991
Hubs
Focus cities
Frequent flyer program Jet Privilege
Fleet size 25 (+10 orders)
Destinations 34
Parent company Jet Airways
Company slogan Emotionally Yours
Headquarters New Delhi
Key people Subrata Roy (founder), Naresh Goyal (Owner, Jetairways & jetlite)
Website: http://www.jetlite.com

JetLite, formerly Air Sahara, is an airline based in New Delhi, India.[1] Controlled by Jet Airways, the airline operates scheduled services connecting metropolitan centres in India. The airline also provides helicopters which are available for charter services and aerial photography. Its main base is Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, with hubs at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad, Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. The focus cities are Chennai International Airport, Chennai, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport,Ahmedabad and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata[2].

Contents

[edit] History

The airline was established on 20 September 1991 and began operations on 3 December 1993 with two Boeing 737-200 aircraft as Sahara Airlines. Initially services were primarily concentrated in the northern sectors of India, keeping Delhi as its base, and then operations were extended to cover all the country. Sahara Airlines was rebranded as Air Sahara on 2 October 2000, although Sahara Airlines remains the carrier's registered name. On 22 March 2004 it became an international carrier with the start of flights from Chennai to Colombo. It is part of the major Sahara India Pariwar business conglomerate. The uncertainty over the airline's fate has caused its share of the domestic Indian air transport market go down from approximately 11% in January 2006 to a reported 8.5% in April.

[edit] Buyout by Jet Airways

Jet Airways announced its first takeover attempt on January 19, 2006, offering US$500 million (2000 crore) in cash for the airline.[3] Market reaction to the deal was mixed, with many analysts suggesting that Jet Airways was paying too much for Air Sahara. The Indian Civil Aviation Ministry gave approval in principle, but the deal was eventually called off over disagreements over price and the appointment of Jet chairman Naresh Goyal to the Air Sahara board. Following the failure of the deal, the companies filed lawsuits seeking damages from each other[4]

A second, eventually successful attempt was made on April 12, 2007 with Jet Airways agreeing to pay 1,450 crore rupees ($340 million). The deal gave Jet a combined domestic market share of about 32%.[5]

On April 16th Jet Airways announced that Air Sahara will be renamed as JetLite.[1] The takeover was officially completed on April 20th, when Jet Airways paid Rs. 400 crore.

Former Air Sahara logo
Former Air Sahara logo

[edit] Destinations

JetLite operates the following services (as of July 2008[6])

[edit] Domestic scheduled destinations

[edit] International scheduled destinations

Nepal

Sri Lanka


Planned expansion to the following[2] [3]. has been put on hold due to rising fuel costs:

As Air Sahara the airline also served Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore which were not retained by Jetlite while Colombo and Kathmandu were taken on.

[edit] Fleet

The JetLite fleet includes the following aircraft (at 28th May 2008) [7] :

Jetlite Fleet
Aircraft Total Orders Options Routes Notes
Boeing 737-300 2 0 0 Short haul
Domestic services
Boeing 737-400 2 0 0 Domestic services
Boeing 737-700 7 10 0 Short and medium haul routes 10 expected from EasyJet
Boeing 737-800 7 10 0 Short and medium haul routes To be delivered from 2010
Bombardier CRJ200 7 0 0 Regional Routes Being Replaced by Boeing 737-800


JetLite average fleet age is 6.5 years old in June 2006[8].

JetLite also operates Helicopters on non-scheduled routes.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Jet renames Air Sahara 'Jetlite' Rediff.com, April 16 2007
  2. ^ "Directory: World Airlines", Flight International (2007-03-27), pp. 65-66. 
  3. ^ Sify.com
  4. ^ BBC News
  5. ^ [1] [in.ibtimes.com]
  6. ^ Flight Network - JetLite
  7. ^ Air Sahara Website - Fleet
  8. ^ Air Sahara Fleet Age

[edit] External links

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Air transport in India
International and domestic
Nationwide domestic
Regional domestic
Cargo and Charter
Defunct
Planned Airlines
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