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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Sept. 14 Jet Airways has been given permission to start operating flights from India to Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain from January 1, 2008 when the three year ban on private airlines flying to the Gulf expires.

On Thursday, the Government allowed Jet Airways to operate 70 flights a week from Kerala, Mumbai and Delhi to the Gulf region. The airline has been permitted 21 flights a week between India and Kuwait including a daily service from Delhi with an A 330-200 aircraft. In addition, it has been allowed to operate a daily service from both Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi to Kuwait using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

Similarly, on the India-Oman route the airline has been allowed to operate 21 flights a week including a daily from Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. The airline has been allowed a daily flight between Mumbai-Doha and Mumbai-Bahrain apart from a daily service between Kozhikode-Doha and Kochi and Bahrain. These services would be operated with a Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The airline currently has four A330-200 aircraft that can seat between 220 and 226 aircraft apart from 29 Boeing 737-800 aircraft that can seat between 140 to 175 passengers.

Jet request for operating from India to both Abu Dhabi and Dubai is, however, still being considered by the Government. The latest decision could affect the fortunes of Air India as the Gulf region is the second largest revenue generator for it. During 2005-06, Air India earned revenues of Rs 1,591.04 crore down from Rs 2,021.46 crore earned during the previous year.

The decision, however, is unlikely to lead to a major reduction of fares between India and the Gulf, travel industry officials feel. “The market is huge and under served so there would be little pressure on fares. Besides, Jet is a full service airline so is unlikely to offer really low fares,” said a Gulf airline official.

It was in December 2004 that the Union Cabinet mandated airlines having a fleet of 20 aircraft and with five years of domestic operations would be allowed abroad except to the Gulf region. The decision paved the way for Jet Airways and Air Sahara to fly international.

At the Cabinet meeting it was also decided that the moratorium on private airlines flying to the Gulf region was to be in place till December this year during which period only Air India, Indian Airlines and their subsidiaries will be allowed to operate flights to the various regions in the Gulf including United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

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