Jet Airways cancels Friday flights to Schiphol
After having one of its Boeings seized at Schiphol Airport on Wednesday, cash-strapped Indian airline Jet Airways canceled almost all of its flights to and from Amsterdam on Friday. The cancelations are due to "operational reasons", the financially troubled airline said, according to various media outlets.
Jet Airways flies between Amsterdam and Bengaluru (commonly known as "Bangalore"), Delhi, and Mumbai in India, and also Toronto, Canada. The airline often operates four flights pairs per day from Schiphol. On Thursday the airline announced that it is permanently scrapping its service between Amsterdam and Toronto. Other international flights were also canceled, BBC reports.
The airline's website says that departures from Schiphol to Bengaluru were canceled on Thursday. Flights to Bengaluru, Mumbai and Toronto are canceled for Friday. Flights to Delhi are delayed for several hours. And flights to Delhi and Mumbai are canceled on Saturday. For arrivals at Schiphol, flights from Bengaluru were canceled on Thursday. Flights from Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai are canceled on Friday. And flights from Bengaluru and Mumbai are canceled on Saturday.
Many, but not all of the cancellations were also displayed on Schiphol's website.
On Thursday the airline 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, with Indian saying it may be flying fewer than 15 planes.
Airlines in India must maintain a fleet of at least 20 planes to continue to operate international flights, according to the BBC.
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.
Exactly what will happen to passengers whose flights to and from India were scrapped is not yet clear. Passengers flying to or from Toronto will be booked onto another flight or will get a refund, Jet Airways said on Thursday, according to the Telegraaf.
On Twitter, various passengers are trying to get information about whether their flight is canceled. One traveler flying from Amsterdam next week pointed out that if the airline just said that all flights are canceled, there would be a lot less confusion. Another: "Gulp... I'm scheduled to fly back home on Jet next week from Bengaluru, this is not a good sign."
