Jet Airways to launch freighter service from April

Jet Airways, the private sector carrier, will launch a dedicated freighter service on both national and international routes, including Bangalore, Hong Kong and Singapore from April.

The airline will commence these services with an Airbus A330-200 freighter aircraft, which has been wet-leased from Jet Airways investment partner Etihad, the airline said in a release on Tuesday.

The Naresh Goyal-promoted airline had planned to launch cargo services earlier as well but it had to defer the plan due to adverse business climate at that time.

The government had recently accorded in-principle approval to Jet Airways to lease the aircraft from the Gulf carrier.

Under a wet lease arrangement, a lessor leases an aircraft with crew insurance and maintenance services to the lessee.

"The launch of dedicated freighter operations is a landmark moment for Jet Airways as it enables the airline to provide, for the first time, freighter services for customers in India and around the world," the airline's chief executive Cramer Ball said.

Bell said that India, which is now the second fastest growing air cargo market in the world, is expected to continue in line with the domestic economy and the company looked forward to cargo making a strong contribution to annual revenues.

"In line with the 'Guest First' strategy that Jet Airways has implemented for its passenger services, Jet Airways Cargo has developed a wide range of service options to meet the growing needs of its customers, including express and valuable products.

Jet Airways will provide customers with main-deck capability, complementing its extensive passenger belly network as well as infusing much-needed additional cargo capacity into constrained domestic sectors, the release said.

It will help foster the continued growth and scale of the domestic e-commerce sector and facilitate international commerce by developing existing and new trade lanes such as between Vietnam and India, the release added.