Who is Jet Airways?
Jet Airways was/is the biggest private Indian airline that is based in Mumbai (VABB/BOM). In 2014 it reported its first loss when Vistara entered the market. Since then the airline’s financial standings went downhill which led to its bankruptcy in 2019. Originally the airline wanted to relaunch that same year after a major investment, this fell through though. However, earlier this year it was announced, that Jet Airways was planning to restart later this year after obtaining its AOC again.
The Fleet
If you only count in Jet Airways itself, and not any of its subsidiaries, the airline had a total of 120 aircraft. Generally, the fleet can be divided into 3 categories: regional, short-haul, and long-haul. On the regional routes, Jet Airways used ATR aircraft 15 ATR 72-500 and 1 ATR 72-600 to be precise.
The most important part we’re gonna look at though is the short to medium-haul fleet. It was exclusively compromised of Boeing aircraft: 4 B737-700s, 68 B737-800s, 2 B737-900s, and 4 B737-900ERs. Jet Airways also already operated 8 B737-8s, part of a 75 aircraft order for that type.
The long-haul fleet consisted of 4 A330-200s, 4 A330-300s, 10 B777-300ERs, and 10 B787-9s on order.
However, most of that fleet doesn’t remain as it was sold/relocated by the lessors to other airlines. This means, that Jet Airways doesn’t really have a main aircraft type in their fleet. Because of their ambitious growth plan, an aircraft order is compulsory. And it seems like Airbus has won the order.
The order
According to Bloomberg, Jet Airways is very close to strike a deal with Airbus valued at about $5,5 Billion. This order is supposed to include A320neo aircraft, but also A220-family aircraft.
This would be a major shift from Boeing to Airbus because as mentioned above, the airline exclusively operated Boeing aircraft on short to medium-haul routes. This would solidify Airbus’ position as the leading aircraft manufacturer in the “fastest-growing aviation market”.
While this isn’t official news yet and negotiations with Boeing and Embraer are reportedly also underway, insiders have said, that Airbus emerged as the frontrunner.