Air Sahara India

JetLite , formerly Air Sahara , is an airline based in Delhi, India. Controlled by Jet Airways, the airline operates scheduled services connecting metropolitan centres in India. The airline also provides helicopters which are available for charter services and aerial photography.

History

The airline was established on 20 September 1991 and began operations on 3 December 1993 with two Boeing 737-200 aircraft as Sahara Airlines . Initially services were primarily concentrated in the northern sectors of India, keeping Delhi as its base, and then operations were extended to cover all the country. Sahara Airlines was rebranded as Air Sahara on 2 October 2000, although Sahara Airlines remains the carrier's registered name. On 22 March 2004 it became an international carrier with the start of flights from Chennai to Colombo. It is part of the major Sahara India Pariwar business conglomerate. The uncertainty over the airline's fate has caused its share of the domestic Indian air transport market go down from approximately 11% in January 2006 to a reported 8.5% in April.

Buyout by Jet Airways

Jet Airways announced its first takeover attempt on January 19, 2006, offering US$500 million (2000 crore rupees) in cash for the airline. Market reaction to the deal was mixed, with many analysts suggesting that Jet Airways was paying too much for Air Sahara. The Indian Civil Aviation Ministry gave approval in principle, but the deal was eventually called off over disagreements over price and the appointment of Jet chairman Naresh Goyal to the Air Sahara board. Following the failure of the deal, the companies filed lawsuits seeking damages from each other

A second, eventually successful attempt was made on April 12, 2007 with Jet Airways agreeing to pay 1,450 crore rupees ($340 million). The deal gave Jet a combined domestic market share of about 32%.

On April 16 Jet Airways announced that Air Sahara will be renamed as JetLite. The takeover was officially completed on April 20, when Jet Airways paid Rs. 400 crore.

Jetlite has been repositioned as a value carrier offering attractive low fares. It stopped offering complimentary food on board and now offers it for purchase separately. Jet Airways has withdrawn from many of its routes and has replaced it with Jetlite operations to compete with full service carriers operating on those sectors.

Destinations

JetLite operates the following services (as of October 2009)

India

• Andaman and Nicobar Islands
  • Port Blair - Vir Savarkar Airport
• Andhra Pradesh
  • Hyderabad- Rajiv Gandhi International Airport
  • Visakhapatnam - Visakhapatnam Airport
• Assam
  • Dibrugarh - Mohanbari Airport
  • Guwahati - Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport
  • Jorhat - Jorhat Airport
• Bihar
  • Patna - Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport
• Chhatisgarh
  • Raipur - Mana Airport
• Delhi
  • Indira Gandhi International Airport
• Goa
  • Vasco da Gama - Dabolim Airport
• Gujarat
  • Ahmedabad - Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport
• Jammu and Kashmir
  • Srinagar - Sheikh ul Alam Airport
• Karnataka
  • Bangalore - Bengaluru International Airport
• Kerala
  • Kochi - Cochin International Airport
  • Kozhikode - Karipur Airport
• Madhya Pradesh
  • Indore - Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport
• Maharashtra
  • Aurangabad - Chikkalthana Airport
  • Mumbai - Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport
  • Nagpur - Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport
  • Pune - Pune International Airport
• Manipur
  • Imphal - Tulihal Airport
• Orissa
  • Bhubaneswar - Biju Patnaik Airport
• Tamil Nadu
  • Chennai - Chennai International Airport
  • Coimbatore - Peelamedu Airport
• Uttar Pradesh
  • Gorakhpur - Gorakhpur Airport
  • Lucknow - Amausi Airport
• West Bengal
  • Kolkata - Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport

Sri Lanka

• Colombo - Bandaranaike International Airport

Fleet

The JetLite fleet includes the following aircraft:

JetLite average fleet age is 8.46 years as of April,2009

JetLite also operates Helicopters on non-scheduled routes.

• 3 Ecureuil Helicopter
• 1 Dauphin Helicopter

Inflight services

JetLite offers a buy on board service called ByteLite , offering food for purchase.

Incidents and Accidents

On 8 March 1994, a Boeing 737-2R4C (registered VT-SIA) was engaged in a training flight with an instructor and 3 trainee pilots. Five circuits and landings were completed uneventfully and during the sixth touch-and-go exercise, after the take off from runway 28 of Indira Gandhi International Airport, the aircraft made a left turn and crashed at the International Terminal Apron. The wreckage of aircraft hit an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-86 aircraft parked on Bay No. 45 as a result of which it also caught fire. Two Aeroflot employees, a Russian ground engineer and an airport worker were killed on the ground. The accident occurred due to application of wrong rudder by trainee pilot during engine failure exercise. Capt. did not guard/block the rudder control and give clear commands as Instructor so as to obviate the application of wrong rudder control by the trainee pilot.

See also

• Jet Airways

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Jet renames Air Sahara 'Jetlite' Rediff.com , April 16 2007
2. ^ > "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International : pp. 65-66. 2007-03-27.  
3. ^ Sify.com
4. ^ BBC News
5. ^
6. ^ JetLite - Network
7. ^ JetLite - Aircraft Fleet Information
8. ^ "ByteLite." JetLite. Retrieved on 26 August 2009.
9. ^

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