Jet Airways Plans to Lease One More Plane to Etihad

Mumbai: Private carrier Jet Airways said on Monday that it is likely to lease one more Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft to its equity partner Etihad.

Etihad Airways, which holds a 24 per cent stake in the Naresh Goyal-led carrier, has already taken on lease six planes from Jet Airways.

"We may lease one more Boeing 777 aircraft to Etihad on a short-term basis," Jet Airways vice president for aeropolitical, government and international affairs Gautam Acharya said during a post-earnings analysts call here.

The airline has leased out altogether nine aircraft to Etihad and Turkish Airlines, he said, adding, "Four Boeing 777-300ERs and two A330s are leased to Etihad, while three Boeing 777-300ERs are with Turkish Airlines."

Etihad had recently said it was planning to take some more planes from Jet.

"We are finalising plans to introduce two aircraft before the end of the year," Etihad had said.

One of the three aircraft leased to Turkish Airlines is coming back, and which may go to Etihad on lease, Mr Acharya said.

The Mumbai-based full service carrier has 113 planes in its fleet. Of which, 26 are owned by the carrier and the rest 87 are leased.

Jet Airways, the country's second largest airline by market share, cut down its consolidated loss by a whopping 95.7 per cent to Rs 43 crore in the quarter to September 2014 on the back of a Rs 305-crore one-time income from the sale of its loyalty programme to Etihad and better operational efficiency.

Besides, on a standalone basis, it flew back into profit with Rs 69.82 crore profit against a net loss of Rs 891 crore in the year-ago period.

The operational restructuring initiatives with route and network rationalisation are already yielding dividends on the domestic and international network, the airline's chief executive, Cramer Ball, had said at the Q2 earnings.

The organic network expansion coupled with enhanced global connectivity through alliances and code-share pacts had also helped in increasing international passenger traffic, Mr Ball had said in the result statement over the weekend.