Jet Airways cancels more Amsterdam flights
Jet Airways is canceling more flights to and from Amsterdam. All flights between Schiphol and India scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are canceled, the financially troubled Indian airline confirmed to NL Times in a statement.
Jet Airways flies between Amsterdam and Bengaluru (commonly known as "Bangalore"), Delhi, and Mumbai in India, and also Toronto, Canada. The airline suspended the route between Amsterdam and Toronto on April 11th "until further notice", a Jet Airways spokesperson said to NL Times by email.
Jet Airways successfully managed to hold its own as a full-service airline in the tough Indian market after first breaking into the monopoly held by state-run Air India in the early 1990s, according to Bloomberg. But a little over 10 years ago, budget airlines started offering very low fairs on many of the same routes. The airline lost market share, and it now faces debts of over a billion dollars.
Last week Thursday Jet Airways reportedly grounded another 10 planes due to unpaid leasing fees. The Indian airline's fleet has shrunk by almost 90 percent, Bloomberg reports. In January Jet Airways still utilized 124 planes. Now that figure is less than 20. Airlines in India must maintain a fleet of at least 20 planes to continue to operate international flights, according to the BBC.
The airline also canceled many of its flights between Amsterdam and India late last week and over the weekend. In a statement, Jet Airways said that it is working to "minimize guest inconvenience" in line with defined regulatory guidelines. Affected passengers will be offered alternative flights or refunds "as the situation warrants", the airline said. "The airline's management and its key stakeholders including its consortium of lenders, continue to work closely towards resolving the current situation."