Jet-Deccan alliance takes off

The intense competition in the Indian aviation market is now forcing Indian carriers to join hands.

The intense competition in the Indian aviation market is now forcing Indian carriers to join hands. In a first of its kind arrangement between a legacy carrier and a low-cost carrier, Jet Airways and Air Deccan have joined hands for a set sharing arrangement across all sectors.

‘‘We have finalised a seat sharing arrangement where in case a Jet Airways flight is cancelled a person holding the Jet boarding pass can board an Air Deccan flight operating on the same route,’’ Air Deccan’s MD Capt G R Gopinath said here today.

Gopinath said that the airlines would carry out seat swappings in case of cancellations to avoid passenger inconvenience and the accounts paring would be done at the end of every month.

With airlines increasingly facing pressure on their margins, such an arrangement is likely to help both the parties in offsetting losses due to cancellations.

Air Deccan already has a similar arrangement with SpiceJet. ‘‘Our relationship with SpiceJet stands however it was limited to a small number of routes. At the moment we serve close to 56 destinations while Jet serves 44 destinations. Both of us have a huge network and this will help us serve passengers better,’’ he said.

This arrangement is probably the first step in the increased co-operation between the two carriers. There are indications that both of them are looking at an interline arrangement to face-off competition. The two airlines are also contemplating sharing engineering resources and pilots in the future.