Jet Airways coming back with premium and no frills hybrid model

Jet Airways India Ltd., which is undergoing a court-monitored restructuring, plans to return with a hybrid of premium and no-frills services that would allow the former top local airline to claw back market share while managing costs in the fiercely competitive Indian aviation market.
The bankrupt airline, now helmed by a new set of owners, will have a two-class configuration where business class passengers will be offered services including free meals, its new chief executive officer Sanjiv Kapoor said in an interview near New Delhi on Wednesday. The economy class will, however, be modeled similar to low-cost carriers where flyers pay for meals and other services, he said.
“It’s very difficult in the domestic Indian market to take on the cost of the food and everything else in economy class, where the customer in India chooses primarily on the basis of fares,” said Kapoor, an aviation veteran who took charge of the defunct airline this week. “Let’s just accept that and let’s not burden ourselves with extra cost.”