JET AIRWAYS TARGETS $3 BILLION REVENUE IN 3 YEARS
New Delhi, October 30, 2007 (IANS)

Jet Airways, India's largest private airline, is aiming to achieve $3 billion (Rs.118 billion) in revenue in the next three years, chairman Naresh Goyal said Tuesday. He also said almost half of this $3 billion would come from its international operations. Jet Airways' inaugural flight between New York and New Delhi with 150 passengers aboard took off Sunday (October 29) from JFK airport after a brief religious ceremony at the departure lounge.

"International expansion will help domestic operations make money. Every year, we will increase our domestic revenue by 15 percent," Goyal told reporters on the sidelines of the Fortune Global Forum meet here. The company, which currently operates direct flights from Mumbai to Newark, US, recently started its direct flights to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport via its European hub in Brussels.

The airline recently announced its plans to start flights to Shanghai from Mumbai. It is the only private carrier in India that has got permission to fly into the Gulf. It has applied for rights to fly to Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. In September, the airline started its service to Toronto via Brussels. Earlier this year, the company acquired Air Sahara, now re-branded as JetLite.

Jet's inaugural New York-Delhi flight takes off
By Parveen Chopra, New York, October 29 (IANS)

Jet Airways' inaugural flight between New York and New Delhi with 150 passengers aboard took off Sunday from JFK airport after a brief religious ceremony at the departure lounge. This is Jet's third daily service between India and North America.

"The new flight is an exciting opportunity for us as it opens up another part of America's East Coast," Deepak Oberoi, Jet's regional director (East Coast & South America), told IANS. He added the flight would be convenient for passengers from areas including the eastern part of New York, upstate New York and Connecticut. Gurvinder Singh, an upstate New York businessman, agreed. "I had booked a seat on the inaugural flight two months ago," he said.

The Brussels-Delhi leg of the inaugural flight Sunday had all 312 seats booked. Jet had earlier launched flights between Newark (New Jersey) and Mumbai and between Toronto and Chennai. All three flights have stopovers in Brussels, a hub for Jet, around the same time, making it convenient for passengers to switch flights, depending on their final destination.

The religious ceremony at JFK's departure lounge of Terminal 8 had priests from Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Christian religions saying prayers for the success of the service and welfare of passengers.