Jet Airways is believed to have shelved a plan to transfer the airline's ATR turboprop aircraft fleet to the subsidiary JetLite for now, owing to the regulatory complexities and costs issue.
Jet currently has 18 ATRs in its fleet, which cater to the airline's regional routes, while JetLite has a total fleet of 11 Boeing 737 planes.
"Jet Airways had plans to transfer its entire fleet of ATR aircraft to its subsidiary airline JetLite. This was part of the airline's overall profitability plan. However, after toying with the idea for quite some time, it has dropped the plan due to technical reasons and cost issues," an airline source told PTI.
The Naresh Goyal-promoted airline and JetLite (formerly Air Sahara which was bought out by Jet in 2007) operate under two different air operator permits and the transfer of aircraft from one airline to another airline involves a complex process, sources said.
When contacted, the private carrier said that evaluation of the fleet vis-a-vis planned deployment was a routine exercise.
"At Jet Airways we continually evaluate our fleet vis-a-vis planned deployment across our operational network, with a sharp focus on profitability. Our ATR fleet is also part of this evaluation and we will be in a position to share the details once we arrive at any decision," a Jet Airways spokesperson said in response to a text message by PTI.
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