Bad days started for Jet Airways from the time Prafful Patel was replaced as Minister for Civil Aviation. Under his tutelage Jet Airways was the most favoured airlines, got all desirable routes, of Middle -East,Far-East etc at the expense of Air India which went bankrupt.
The biggest mistake of Jet is it evicted the only airline who could have helped them in the long run i.e Kingfisher while they shook hands a couple of years back. Jet piggy backed with the low cost carriers to further evict the only airline who was probably partnering its model. The rub off effect and the benefit straight away went to airlines like Indigo and Spicejet, today the threat that Jet faces is not only with airlines like Vistara but also its own old friends who have now turned as enemies. Indigo has always been smart in using bigger brands to finish off their competition and have successfully done it. Today Jet faces problems on Konnect thats primarily because the low cost arm was completed super sized by Indigo. If Jet needs to set things correct they should target Indigo and the low cost carriers who benefited from the entire downfall.
Jet Konnect failure is mainly due to wrong policy adopted by commercial department of Jet Konnect. When no frill airlines is run, its pricing should be at par with other airlines. Marginal difference is ok, but not the huge difference which it shows. As such, all other no frill airlines get first preference in booking and jet konnect as a last choice. Commercial deparment forgets the fact that major customer base is Corporate sectors employees. It has become policy of entire corporte sector that booking should be done at cheapest available price and when the company books ticket, the booking goes to other no frill airlines rther than Jet Konnect. As a result, jet Konnect flights have on an average 60% occupancy as compared to over 90% occupancy of other airlines. I am reguler traveler on Mumbai-Delhi route. Almost all Jet Konnect flights are code share flight and are merged with Jet Airways flight. The difference betwen other airlines is so much that inspite of personal preference, I have no other choice than to choose other airlines and it is noticed that all these no frill airlines flights are almost full and whenever I travel by jet/ jetKonnect, occupancy is 50% or so. Whats the point in swimming against water? Commercial department of Jet Airways should be more vigilent and advise its management accordingly.
