Jet Airways which began the Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route in June this year has announced that it will discontinue the route to cut on low performing flights. The Economic Times quoted Jet Airways chief commercial officer Sudheer Raghavan as saying “This suspension is temporary as the airline is continuously monitoring all routes but has no plans to discontinue any other flights for the moment.” The route will terminate on January 13, seven months after the Airline launched the route.

Meanwhile the airline has said that it will service its San Francisco customers via the London route, through its partner airlines, one of whom is United Airlines.

Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal also recently announced that he was interested in selling 10 percent of his 80 percent stake in the company. Due to rising fuel prices and a slowdown in passenger traffic many airlines around the world have not been able to break even this year. In the financial year ending March 2008, Jet Airways posted a net loss of Rs 253 crore (US$52.3 million). Jet which is India’s largest private airline plans to break even by 2010.

“I will be diluting whatever is required to make the balance sheet strong, but I will always keep control of the company,” Goyal told Business Standard.

The The Times of India also reported that Kingfisher Airlines was in talks with jet Airways to form an operational alliance which would command 50 percent of the Indian market.

The Times of India added - Each Jet and Kingfisher are losing up to Rs 10 crore (US$ 2 million) daily. Now this deal, which may ultimately lead to a consolidation once one of the players has access to funds to buy out the other, could allow them to cut some losses by having features like code-share agreements, especially on foreign routes.

State run Air India, which has been plying the Shanghai-Delhi-Mumbai route since sometime now will continue to operate. As will Shanghai Airways which plans to start flying the Mumbai-Shanghai route from the 29th of October.

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