Reeling under heavy losses, country’s largest airline Jet Airways (India) is planning to prune

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the wings of its full-service carrier Jet Airways from next month.

The company plans to almost halve the number of flights from the existing 334 flights, including international routes, according to senior company officials.

The company, which reg- istered a loss of over Rs 961.41 crore on consolidated basis for the year 2008-09, is taking all possible measures to bring down losses. As a result, the company is planning to shunt Jet Airways flights that are flying at around 60 per cent or lower occupancy and shift the routes to Jet Airways Konnect, which is seeing over 70 per cent occupancy, an official, who did not wish to be identified, told Financial Chronicle.

By July, the full-service carrier would have around 150 flights, which at present operates over 334 flights daily connecting 63 domestic and international destinations, the official added.

Konnect, which presently operates over 100 flights a day, will operate over 120 flights per day.

However, JetLite, which at present operates 108 flights, is unlikely to have any change in the number of flights. After the cut in routes by Jet Airways comes in to effect from next month, the number of flights operated by the fullservice carrier will be much less than the total number of flights operated by its lowcost peers — Jet Airways Konnect and JetLite, at around 230 flights per day.

Earlier, the hike in ATF price has resulted in hike in fares by the airline companies

The oil marketing companies increased ATF prices by more than 12 per cent to Rs 37,367 per kilolitre, on firming international oil prices. ATF accounts for 40 per cent of an airline’s operating cost.

International crude oil prices have firmed to a seven-month high of $72 per barrel on hopes of demand revival in the US.

Regarding the possibility of an imminent fare hike, a top Jet official told Financial Chronicle they are yet to take a final decision. “We will evaluate the impact of ATF price increases and take a call in due course,” the Jet official said.

Earlier this week, Jet’s executive director, Saroj Datta said that sooner or later the increase in fuel prices is likely to be passed on either as a hike in fares or as a fuel surcharge to the consumers.