Jet Airways to offer full services on all-economy subsidiary JetKonnect

New Delhi: In a bid to take on competition from Tata-SIA Airlines Ltd’s Vistara airline which is yet to start operations, Jet Airways India Ltd on Thursday announced launch of full services even on its all-economy subsidiary JetKonnect from December and plans to consolidate into a single-brand. Full service product with complementary meal service would be provided on all domestic flights from 1 December, with the buy-on-board concept being discontinued, an airline statement said. The announcement was in line with its recent announcement of a uniform ‘single brand’, with Jet Airways commencing streamlining and aligning its domestic operations into “a single full service product to provide an enhanced and consistent product experience,” the statement said. “As the first of many upcoming initiatives, all guests booking flights on or after 15 September for travel on or after 1 December will enjoy the full service experience onboard all Jet Airways and JetKonnect-operated flights across the domestic network,” it said. It added that the ‘Sky Cafe’ or Jet’s buy-on-board service would be discontinued. Passengers currently booked on JetKonnect flights (holding flight numbers starting with S2), for travel from 1 December would enjoy complementary meals, the statement added. Industry sources said the move comes in timely as Air India Ltd, after joining Star Alliance, has enhanced its on-board product offerings and the new full-service airline, Vistara, getting ready to launch its flights in the next few months. With its first-quarter losses narrowing this financial year, Jet’s board decided to exit the low-fare segment and phase out its JetLite and JetKonnect or all-economy flight brands by the end of 2014. All Jet Airways flights would also have two-class cabins instead of having a single-class configuration now existing in its no-frills subsidiaries.