A representational picture of Jet Airways flight in Mumbai, India
Doha: Working towards creating a hub connectivity model, Jet Airways will stop direct service from Doha to three destinations in Kerala, India. At the same time, the airline will increase the frequency to two other Indian metro cities.
The airlines will discontinue its direct flight service to Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.
Instead, there will only be one-stop flights to these cities, making Mumbai and Delhi as hubs. Additionally, the airline will increase its frequency to Mumbai and Delhi from Doha starting December 5. The increased frequencies will be for Doha-Mumbai at 2255 hours, Mumbai-Doha at 2030 hours, Doha-Delhi at 0250 hours and Delhi-Doha at 2355 hours.
This move comes after the airline posted its September quarter earnings, where the company declared a loss of Rs12.61 billion and so announced a turnaround plan with focus on strengthening the hubs.
According to an official at the Jet Airways office in Doha, the service to Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi will be discontinued after December 3.
Meanwhile, the Jet Airways website shows that most direct flights will be routed via Mumbai and Delhi starting tomorrow except for a few direct routes that will continue for another two weeks.
For many, the Jet Airways plan has come in to force at such a time when they would be visiting their native town in Kerala for Spring break.
A frequent flyer said that this will increase the travel time since the flights have a minimum layover of about 2 hours, increasing up to 7 to 8 hours. Voicing an opinion common among many he said, "I would rather take one of the low-cost airlines that offer direct flight than waste my time on a one-stop flight."
