Sunday, February 22, 2015

Jet Airways plans lease of three A330 long haul freighter aircraft from Etihad

New Delhi: In what will be the first such move of its kind, Jet Airways is planning a foray into the air cargo business by leasing up to three Airbus A330-200F wide-body freighter aircraft from its Abu Dhabi based partner airline, Etihad.

The move will help the company beat Dubai-based Emirates, which carried the highest inbound and outbound air freight in 2013-14.

Mumbai-based Jet is making a major bet on air cargo because it expects India’s manufacturing story to see a strong upswing on the back Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make-in-India campaign, and there is a major vacuum in the industry because no major domestic carrier today has its own long haul cargo fleet.

Business Standard had learnt that the Naresh Goyal promoter carrier has already trained local personnel for this new business arm, while appointing a European Etihad executive, James Gilliard, as the Manager (Cargo) for the Asia-Pacific region based out of Singapore last April. The plan is to start with a wet lease of one A330-200F in the next few months, and later expand the business with more aircraft. As the business grows, the aircraft would be converted into dry leases.
22/02/15 Roudra Bhattacharya/Business Standard
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