JetPrivilege, loyalty programme of the now-grounded Jet Airways, sent me a text message yesterday.
“Arnab, we would like to assure you that the value of your JPMiles are secure and remain intact,” it said. “With ‘Select Flights’ starting with the same JPMiles requirements as before, you have the choice to redeem your JPMiles across more airlines, any destination, any flight & any seat in India and globally.”
A year ago, Jet Airways had 120 planes in the air. Today, that number is zero.
If you ask me, JetPrivilege was the best and most organised airline loyalty programme in India. It has great airline partners around the world, it’s non-complicated to get reward flights and my experience with their customer service has been great.
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In the Indian market, the closest competition of JetPrivilege is Star Alliance with Air India as a part of it. Despite being part of the world’s oldest and most respected alliance of airlines, India’s flag carrier is lousy as ever when it comes to customer service. To get your air miles added is a Herculean task and god help you if you flew with a partner airline and not Air India.
Back to Jet, April 17 was a sad day for Indian aviation when the 26-year-old India’s oldest private airline announced to suspend all its international and domestic flights indefinitely that day.
The development was not a surprise. The cash-strapped airline had been forced to ground more and more planes over the weeks leading to April 17. On the days before it finally made the announcement, only some six aircraft were in the air.
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The consortium of lenders led by State Bank of India that now owns the grounded airline, which owes them more than INR 8,000 crore (USD 1.15 billion), is looking for an investor to acquire up to 75 per cent stake in the airline and turn it around.
The fate of Jet’s thousands of employees of the airline now hangs in the balance. The other Indian airlines are making the most of the situation by leasing the grounded airline’s planes and increasing their flights.
Low-cost carrier SpiceJet announced yesterday that it had absorbed 500 Jet employees, including 100 pilots. The airline has already announced the induction of 27 new aircraft to make up for the less seats due to Jet’s suspension of operations.
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Jet Airways has been a great ambassador of the Indian aviation industry to the world and I sincerely hope it finds an investor and is able to return to the skies. The airline won’t be the same though. The management will be new and many old employees will have left.
In spite of the sorry state the airline is in, I still believe Jet Airways will get its act together and start anew. SpiceJet did it. Jet is a big brand with a loyal customer base. The company behind India’s best airline loyalty programme has what it takes to bounce back.
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