India's two largest private airlines join hands
14/10/2008 17:16
India's two largest private airlines Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines
yesterday joined hands and announced an alliance for sharing of their network
and resources to meet the challenge of aviation downturn caused by rising crude
prices, the Hindustan Times reported today.
Two companies yesterday announced
an unprecedented alliance, that will command nearly 60 percent market shares of
the domestic skies, to survive the difficult times facing the airline
industry.
The scope of the alliance includes cross utilization of crew,
cross-selling of flights, common ground handling, joint fuel management to
reduce fuel expenses, code sharing on both domestic and international flights
and to leverage joint network deploying 189 aircraft of the two airlines.
The
airlines are reportedly hit by losses of up to 100 million rupees, or US$2
million each everyday, sources said.
In a joint statement, the two airlines
clarified that there will not be any mutual equity investments in the two
companies.
"We are coming together to cut costs. It is for the first time two
major Indian carriers are coming together in difficult times," Jet Airways
chairman Naresh Goyal said.
"Our relationship will continue for a long time,"
Mallya Chairman of the Kingfisher Airlines said, "the alliance would be a
quantum leap forward. It would benefit customers of both."
An alliance would
enable the two players to save costs and thereby help optimize the load factor
especially on non viable routes, an aviation analyst said.
Xinhua
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