MUMBAI – India’s leading private carrier, Jet Airways has delayed the launch of its New Delhi-Hong Kong flights in response to the growing fuel crisis.
There are no plans “at the moment” to rationalise other routes, said executive director Saroj Datta.
“We are deferring New Delhi-Hong Kong flights to the winter, taking into account the requirements of the market, and redeploying the capacity,” he said.
The flights had been scheduled to start this month
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Indian jet fuel prices have risen nearly 90 percent since last June and other airlines in the country – including Air India – are set to announce service cuts.
According to one airline chief, the aviation industry is guilty of creating the impression that “flying is cheap” and will pay the price as rocketing oil prices in the coming months force no-frills carriers out of business.
Peter Hartman, chief executive of the Dutch company KLM, one half of Air France/KLM, said airlines had been wrong in allowing consumers seduced by the arrival of budget carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet to think that the low cost of flying would continue for ever.
The aviation executive told The Independent in the UK that while his own company was insulated against some of the effects of the rapidly rising fuel costs because of its strategy for hedging fuel contracts three to four years in advance, he expected “bloodshed” elsewhere in the industry.
