Jet, Sahara gear up for foreign skies’ take-off

Sahara is in the process of exploring new routes, which includes three new destinations — Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Currently, the airline flies to two Saarc destinations: Colombo and Kathmandu. The airline also has plans to acquire new aircraft to expand its foray in the international market, added a company official.

Though Jet Airways did not talk officially on the issue, company insiders say it is planning to raise funds by way of initial public offering (IPO) to expand its international operations. The Rs 1,500-crore IPO is expected to hit the market in February 2005. Like Sahara, the airline currently flies to Colombo and Kathmandu and was hoping for lucrative Gulf destinations.

All the domestic private airlines have modern planes, which can directly fly up to Europe. Indian Airlines said that it is willing to fly to all the Air-India destinations from which the international carrier had withdrawn its flights.

‘‘I’m going to oppose this as the 5-year experience barrier will not be in the national interest,’’ said Vijay Mallya when asked about his stand on the 5-year experience barrier. Mallya, who is in the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Civil Aviation, made these comments as he signed a deal with Airbus Industrie for purchase of 34 aircraft costing Rs 8,100 crore in Mumbai on Dec. 18.

According to Mallya, the logic of a 5-year experience barrier is not correct as it is being imposed to keep new entrants out of the lucrative overseas routes following lobbying by existing airlines. Mallya’s airliner Kingfisher Airlines is starting operations from April 2005 and he is planning to deploy his new 174-seater single class Airbus 320 aircraft in all domestic routes. Mallya sought level-playing field for all private airlines instead of opening the routes only for Jet and Sahara.