A couple of days before dailies reported about Jet Airways’ tie-up with Air France-KLM and Delta Airlines, BusinessLine met Gilbert George, who is heading the Indian company’s expansion in Europe and the Americas. A lifer in the aviation field, the Vice President - Europe Continental & Americas of Jet Airways talked about how the shift of the European hub from Brussels to Amsterdam has made a difference. Excerpts:
It has been six months since you launched services to Amsterdam, after shifting your hub. Why the shift from Brussels?
Brussels was good for us. We were there for eight years. It had its own benefits. Over a period of time you want to get to the next step, and then we saw the potential in Amsterdam. No complaints about Brussels.
How has Amsterdam made a difference?
Our partnership with KLM-Air France and Delta is much stronger than what we had with Brussels Airlines. It is a great airline and we had a great partnership. But we were looking to evolve the business and look at the future. When we looked at Amsterdam, it was a fit from location perspective and from other aspects such as partnership. There will be further expansion. We are not going to stop here.
But there were talks that Lufthansa’s acquisition of Brussels Airlines might have impacted your operations in the Belgium capital.
Not really. Even though we don’t have a code share, Lufthansa is our partner in the frequent flying programme.
Back to Amsterdam, how has been the first 6 months?
We now connect to 30-odd stations in Europe from Amsterdam. Paris is also important for us. Initially, we used to connect up to 100 passengers (daily). That has doubled in four-five months.
We are strong in India with connections to 48 stations. And now, we are strong in Europe. From a business perspective, there are 180 Indian companies doing business here in the Netherlands. And the Netherlands has a lot of business in India. There are 20,000 Indian expats here. There is a growing awareness about the partnership. We have sales guys in Europe and we are also marketing in eastern part of the continent, including Serbia.
But doesn’t that bring you into conflict with carriers such as Air Serbia and Alitalia that have sold stakes to Etihad Airways (the Middle-East carrier also has a stake in Jet Airways)?
The key thing is that the market is huge. We are selling the concept of smart travel, and the concept that we have four hubs - London, Paris, Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi.
So, we have four gateways and a passenger has the flexibility of travelling from these hubs. So, this doesn’t conflict. When we market Jet Airways, we do the marketing of these four hubs. Few carriers have this advantage.
How does this improve your domestic market?
KLM has a flight to Delhi. We complement them with our flights to Mumbai. So there is ease and convenience of passing through direct flight. This connects seamlessly into South-East Asian destinations such as Singapore and Bangkok, and others like Colombo and Nepal. So it’s not just India but the South-East. We are positioning Jet Airways like, if you are travelling to the East, it is with us. We have flights to Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Colombo, and we have code shares with ANA, Bangkok Airways and many other airlines.
What’s in store in the near future?
The key thing is to stabilise, expand further and build more routes.
From October 30, we are introducing Boeing 777, including the first class. First, it will fly Mumbai-Amsterdam, and then, we will launch the aircraft between Delhi-Amsterdam in January.
This route hasn’t seen a first class for years. KLM used to have a first class partner more than 20 years ago. So in a short period, we have the confidence to do this.
(The writer was recently in Amsterdam at the invitation of Jet Airways.)