Jet Airways witness 20 per cent growth in UAE operations, compared to last year, a senior airline official in-charge of the region has said.
The airline last week announced daily flights from Sharjah to Trivandrum to start on October 30.
Ratan Ratnakar, VP - Market Development and Pricing, Gulf and MEA told 'Emirates24|7', that the airline has managed to remain competitive in the face of aggressive competition both from Indian and foreign carriers.
The India-based carrier which started its Gulf operations in 2008, has seen positive growth since then.
“Our UAE operations witnessed a 20 per cent growth between April – September 2011 compared to the same period last year. Today we are the largest private Indian carrier operating to 10 airports in this region with 22 daily departures. Our new daily schedule is conveniently timed for passengers,” he said.
“We have grown in the face of competition from both full service and low fare carriers deploying additional capacity to both gateways and secondary airports due to our constant endeavour to exceed….. “ he added.
The airline currently operates a daily flight from Sharjah to Kochi. This will be the tenth daily service from the United Arab Emirates to India and the 22nd Jet Airways flight from the Gulf to India.
Meanwhile, the UAE-based Etihad airways says it registered a growth of 39 per cent during the third quarter this year, despite a global slump in airline profits.
The airline saw its revenues grow by $1.1billion during the period as its passenger numbers went up to 2.25million, an increase of 18 per cent.
International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently said that growth in global air travel slowed in August. Passenger traffic saw an increase of just 4.5 per cent in August compared to 6 per cent the previous month.
Its statement also warned that the net income in the airline industry might reduce to $4.9 billion in 2012 from an estimated $6.9bn this year.