As a corporate traveller, on the road since 2004, there has been one airline I’ve flown more often than any other. That would be Jet Airways. As they complete their 25 years, it is only fitting to reflect how they came to be one of India’s top brand ambassadors abroad. After all, not every day is an airline born, much less, completes 25 years in the business.
My first interaction with the airline happened, indeed in 2004, while I was a young lad fresh out of business school, learning the ropes of frequent flying. I gave an equal opportunity to Air India and Jet Airways back then to win me as a customer, and stuck with the latter. The groundwork for my choice had been laid out by founder Chairman Naresh Goyal, a decade before.
Goyal’s first brush with an airline came right after he left college in 1967, working for his uncle, who would represent various airlines in India. Jet Air, his marketing organisation for various international airlines in India, was his coming into his own in the business when he launched in 1974.
When the government opened up the airline industry to private players, Goyal was one of the first to jump at the opportunity. Jet Airways started operating as an air taxi operator on May 5, 1993, operating their first flight, 9W321, between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. They could fly but not publish a schedule for one and a half years. In 1995, Jet Airways was granted a scheduled airline status after the Air Corporations Act was abolished.
Eleven years later, in 2004, Jet Airways added international flights, flying from Chennai to Colombo for the first time, setting themselves up for long-haul expansion in the days to come. In 2005, they flew their first long-haul flight from Mumbai to London with a leased Airbus 340-300E. Today, Jet Airways flies to 65 destinations in India and across the world, with presence across hubs in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and gateways in Amsterdam, Paris, London and Abu Dhabi.
The airline was always built on the tenet of service and customer focus. That is the only way I can explain them having an agent waiting to rush me through the entire process when check-in had closed and I was stuck in Bangkok’s famous traffic. Or for the crew to remember my birthday and wish me. Not too many people know, but in 2003, when Etihad was in startup phase, Jet Airways extended them technical assistance to put their systems in place.
05/05/18 Ajay Awataney/Cone Nest Traveller
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My first interaction with the airline happened, indeed in 2004, while I was a young lad fresh out of business school, learning the ropes of frequent flying. I gave an equal opportunity to Air India and Jet Airways back then to win me as a customer, and stuck with the latter. The groundwork for my choice had been laid out by founder Chairman Naresh Goyal, a decade before.
Goyal’s first brush with an airline came right after he left college in 1967, working for his uncle, who would represent various airlines in India. Jet Air, his marketing organisation for various international airlines in India, was his coming into his own in the business when he launched in 1974.
When the government opened up the airline industry to private players, Goyal was one of the first to jump at the opportunity. Jet Airways started operating as an air taxi operator on May 5, 1993, operating their first flight, 9W321, between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. They could fly but not publish a schedule for one and a half years. In 1995, Jet Airways was granted a scheduled airline status after the Air Corporations Act was abolished.
Eleven years later, in 2004, Jet Airways added international flights, flying from Chennai to Colombo for the first time, setting themselves up for long-haul expansion in the days to come. In 2005, they flew their first long-haul flight from Mumbai to London with a leased Airbus 340-300E. Today, Jet Airways flies to 65 destinations in India and across the world, with presence across hubs in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and gateways in Amsterdam, Paris, London and Abu Dhabi.
The airline was always built on the tenet of service and customer focus. That is the only way I can explain them having an agent waiting to rush me through the entire process when check-in had closed and I was stuck in Bangkok’s famous traffic. Or for the crew to remember my birthday and wish me. Not too many people know, but in 2003, when Etihad was in startup phase, Jet Airways extended them technical assistance to put their systems in place.
05/05/18 Ajay Awataney/Cone Nest Traveller
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