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avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/jet-airways-thwarted-tata-plan-to-float-private-airline-in-1997-book/articleshow/12920412.cms

NEW DELHI: India's civil aviation history would have taken a different trajectory had the Tata group and Singapore Airlines been allowed to float a private airline 15 years ago, says former bureaucrat M K Kaw in his tell-all book.

"The Tatas had mooted a proposal for a private airline with 40 per cent equity contribution from Singapore Airlines. As this would have been a formidable competitor, Jet tried hard to upset rules regarding foreign equity contribution," the former civilian aviation secretary in the I K Gujral government writes in "An Outsider Everywhere - Revelations by an Insider", published by Konark.

Kaw, who was in the IAS for 37 years, says he advocated a rule in the policy related to allowing of 40 per cent equity contribution by foreign airlines even in new proposals.

"This was seen by Jet as a victory for the Tatas. If approached as policy, it would enable favourable consideration of the Tata proposal. (Then civil aviation minister Chand Mahal) Ibrahim was not happy... He was not convinced. Jet people had told him that I was trying to show undue favour to the Tatas," he writes.

"The minister did not clear the file, despite several attempts on my part. The history of civil aviation in this country would have taken a different trajectory, if Tata Singapore Airlines had been allowed to float an airline."

On a civil aviation policy, he writes, "The country does not have a civil aviation policy even today. It is of the considered view of many experts in civil aviation that FDI investment will not be allowed in India till this is permitted by the powerful owners of Jet Airways."

According to Kaw, the Tatas also wanted to set up an international airport at Bangalore.

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

So there you go, an example of 9W wasting its energy in cutting down competition rather than improving themselves and becoming a world class airline. Air India/GOI did the same thing by blocking competition and so has 9W by maneuvering policy decisions in their favour. Jet is nothing but the Air India of yesteryears with a slightly streamlined operation. Overall, 9W too today are equally clueless, service standards deteriorating and the flights to the Gulf becoming shoddier by the day, similar to the erstwhile AI/IC standards. Many a times when we see "Air India blocking foreign Carriers" it is mostly 9W pulling the strings from behind.

It is because of this shitty attitude that 9W can never grow and improve as an airline.

An extremely sad situation.

PlaneLover · Member Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 275

It is sad to see many posts about deteriorating quality at Jet Airways. Hope someone from the airline with major decision making authority is watching these posts. We cannot afford to have one more major player go down. Jet needs to put an end to their service decline quickly and come up with clear plans to improve. They should also show more imagination when coming up with new routes. I agree with the posts about extending the new flight from BLR to BRU all the way to SFO. A new service from another city, may be HYD/AMD to ORD/IAH, through Brussels could work and add to the number of scissors connections between India and USA. When will they announce to the world what their intention is with regard to expanding at Brussels versus starting a new hub at Munich? Are they just playing one against another to draw more concessions out of the Belgium government?

If you play dirty politics ( instead of providing superior service to differentiate yourself ) to kill your competitors, sooner or later it will come to bite you in your rear end.

abhijith16 · Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 7:37 pm Post subject:

9W is no longer the stellar star of India. It needs to brought back down to earth and needs to be given a kick in the butt.
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iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2567

Jet airways needs to get its house in order in India before they go on about expansion to USA. They cant even make MAA-DXB work. They can forget about IAH and SFO, too far and too much competition. ORD is a possibility, ever since AA pulled out.

First why would anyone want to fly Jet ? They are usually the most expensive, have a horrible frequent flyer redemption program and do not belong to any alliance. May be the inflight service is slightly better than US carriers, but beyond that they have nothing.

The_Goat · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 11:59 am Post subject:

This incident supposedly happened in 1997 when Naresh Goyal was a mere small player, while the Tatas were already giants with decades of experience in dealing with politicians. Isn't it interesting then, how a non-entity like NG could have so much clout with the politicos, that he could undermine someone as powerful as the Tatas?

I wonder if the Tatas realised what future the Indian Aviation scene had, and quite willingly dropped the idea of starting an airline right then.
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I don't know which is the more pampered bunch : AI's widebodies (the aunties) or Jet's widebodies (the planes).
-Jasepl

Nimish · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:53 pm Post subject:

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

abhijith16 · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:29 pm Post subject:

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

aeroblogger · Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:37 pm Post subject:

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

You have got to love the predictable "but they're not as bad as Air Burkina" defence.

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

That's just sentimental twaddle.

Whoever thinks of the airline? Except the airline and it's people (and in Jet's case even that isn't a guarantee).

Jet can cut costs to their heart's content, no one will give a crap one way or the other. But when that gets translated into even poorer quality standards than existed before, people do care. Their hearts do not bleed for a business they have no stake in and they simply go elsewhere.

Like me.

Jet got nasty, so it's bye by time.

I certainly won't miss them. They should miss me, but seeing as how we've been told time and again that paying J/F passengers don't matter to Jet, they won't care. The trash transportation business is so much better after all.

The vast majority of people do not see Jet - or any other business they have no involvement in - as just that. Peoples' hearts do not bleed the way fan clubs' hearts do. And given that Jet have built almost zero loyalty over the years, plus nearly decimated what litte loyalty there was after the recent spree of devaluations, there's even less support they can count on. They will learn that by continuing their freefall; something they should have always known, but they're champs at looking reality in the eye and denying it.

Hell, even the fan club happily abandon the precious Jet on a routine basis.

Full service is now largely fiction, with so many flights being turned into (even more loss-making) Konnect / Lite / Delite / Fright / Whatever. And even with so much competition, the airline's offering gets nastier by the day. I shudder to think where we as consumers would be if Jet had their wish and got a lot of the competition out of the way.

Actually, I know where we'd be.
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four years free of jetya punti!

HAWK21M · Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 1:29 pm Post subject:

Tata Airlines.....time to return......
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Think of the Brighter side !!!