In a bid to take on UK airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic head to head, Jet Airways has unveiled a sweeping upgrade of its onboard offer, including the addition of First Class.
Speaking at a lavish launch in one of London”s top hotels, Jet Airways chairman, Naresh Goyal unveiled the ”private suite” First Class concept that completely cocoons the passenger in unfettered luxury and which features sliding doors, a mammoth 23” (57.5cm) TV screen, an 83” bed and 26sq ft of personal space.
”The new cabins represent an exciting leap forward in our expansion plans,” said Goyal, adding: ”We have spent more than two years designing each one and are confident in saying that the flying experience on Jet Airways will be the very best in the air.
Premiere (business class) has also been completely revamped while economy seats have been upgraded to feature a foot ”net” facility that allows passengers to position themselves more comfortably. All new products enter into service in May on the London Heathrow-Mumbai route as the airline receives the first of its 20 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
And Goyal underlined the importance of the UK and London in particular, to Jet Airways” plans for aggressive expansion. With India”s economy booming at around 8% growth per year and the country”s close British links, demand for air travel is substantially increasing.
”This is our first press conference outside India, so that shows how important London is to us,” said Goyal as the UK media were given a tour of all three cabins by cabin crew sporting new uniforms. ”We have seen impressive growth in the UK during the last two years and believe that with our new aircraft, we will become the number one airline to India.”
Goyal was also at pains to emphasise that although mainly a domestic carrier, Jet Airways international business now totalled around 18% of total volume and that it was wooing overseas custom.
The Indian carrier is also purchasing ten Boeing 787 aircraft with deliveries starting in 2011 and has announced it will start services to the US via Brussels in August.