There are roughly 45 Airlines in the world that offer First Class seats to their passenger on Long Haul Flights (Flights with
Jet Airways plans to give TAAG Angola or El El (From Israel) run for
All of these Airlines are usually rated by quality of the service, seat quality, benefits and amenities offered to the first class passengers.
Lounges are being Removed
Jet Airways has removed lounge access for First Class passengers flying from New Delhi already.
They have removed lounge services for Business (Premiere) passengers already in Hyderabad and Goa.
Mumbai is now only airport where you can have access to GVK lounge. However, though there is no official confirmation, but I have recieved message from other passengers that GVK lounge is not available even to Business class passengers.
Next cut would definitely be towards International side.
There are good lounges on Domestic side which can be accessed via various credit cards. However, there is only one lounge at International side that can be accessed by credit card – Loyalty lounge.
A lounge that has nothing to write home about. It definitely doesn’t hold any value compared to World’s best lounge GVK which recently won at World Travel Awards for Asia’s Leading Airport lounge, Asia leading Domestic airport lounge and World’s best business class lounge.
No More Entertainment on Jet Flights
Jet Airways has withdrawn JetScreen, Jet Airways inflight entertainment system. This may be because the vendor hasn’t been paid.
No inflight entertainment system will work on both international as well as domestic flights. As it is Jet Airways doesn’t have WiFi on their aircraft, and now no IFE. This is a new low in passenger experience for the long-haul network: 9 hours on long haul flights without IFE.
A notice on the Jet Airways website confirms the same.
Jet Airways cuts in-flight entertainment service
Remember, Jet AIrways doesn’t have inbuilt WiFi on the flights. Their product isn’t the newest product in the market either. They were planning to discontinue First Class from 2019. However, it looks like way more than First class will be discontinued.
Jet Airways Pilot Strike Status
Jet Airways Pilot strike was supposed to happen on 1st April. However, it has been postponed to April 15, after release of salary of December month. However, most people have not been paid from January.
I don’t believe that Jet Airways would be able to provide rest of the salary by April 15 either.
Jet Airways Defaults
- 2017 – Jet Starts cutting lounges across India.
- October – Missed payment to Lounges across India.
- December – Jet Airways becomes
Low Cost Airline by cutting away free meals to all passengers. - December – Defaulted on Loan payment by Domestic lenders which is headed by SBI Bank
- Feb 2 – Defaulted on rentals to almost every aircraft leasing company. Forced to ground 80% of the fleet.
- March 19 – Missed bond interest payment
- March 25 – Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita Goyal finally steps down as Chairman and member of the board.
- March 28 – Missed International Commercial borrowing which is headed by HSBC Dubai. Somehow, it brought Etihad in the loop as guarantor.
- April 5, Indian Oil stopped supplying fuel for a day until they were assured of their payments. However, supply is limited time now. Jet Airways would have to refuel the aircraft as per Indian Oil and might delay the flights.
- April 8, Jet Airways missed EMI of self owned fleet of 777. Citibank USA might go ahead with deregistration of the airline and asking for the planes to be returned
- April 28, Last day of Airline if there is no fund infusion till then. DGCA has only approved schedule till April. While the rest of the airlines like Indigo, Spicejet and GoAir have schedule till October.
Citibank Boeing 777 Puzzle
In September 2005, Jet Airways had signed a purchase agreement for 10 Boeing 777-300ER series aircraft with plans to start serving long-haul international destinations. Remember, Only 777s have first class fitted in them.
Jet Airways having delayed repayments of over $18 million to global lenders- including Citibank- that had financed its purchase of the Boeing 777s on the back of guarantees from Export-Import (EXIM) Bank of the US, these planes are now at risk of being repossessed. However, Jet Airways still has time to pay those EMIs within 2 months.
Bottomline
