Jet Airways to expand through five hubs

MUMBAI: Jet AirwaysBSE 0.71 % Tuesday said its ongoing and future international expansion will be through five “gateways” or hubs: Amsterdam, London, Paris and Singapore apart from strategic partner Etihad Airways’ base Abu Dhabi. 

Etihad owns 24% in Jet. 

Expansion through these gateways will primarily be through codeshare and interline connections and will give Jet a bigger reach than it would have got only via Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam, where it shifted earlier this year from its earlier hub in Brussels. 

Through Amsterdam, London and Paris the airline said it will have access to a



total of 35 destinations in Europe and 35 in North America through agreements with Air France, KLM and Delta more than double of the 32 it gets beyond Abu Dhabi with Etihad. Singapore will give it access to markets such as Australia through a codeshare with Qantas. 

Codeshare traffic for Jet more than trebled to 2.1 million in two years to FY16 and interline traffic grew 121% in the same period. 1 in 10 passengers on a Jet flight connects from or to a partner airline. 

But the addition comes even as the airline is losing market share in India. Its share fell to 17.1% in October from 21.7% in January.