The financially troubled Jet Airways of India is conducting negotiations with local Indian regional airline, TruJet, to sublease out almost half of its ATR fleet.
The move will drastically hit Jet Airways competitive place in the domestic market but the airline is struggling to cut costs and shore up losses. In a briefing to the financial community, Jet Airways management said, it continues to “evaluate all possible alternatives to ensure optimum utilization of its fleet”. Many in the Indian aviation industry have believed that Jet Airways had been looking to curtail some of its domestic operations and either wet or dry lease out some or all of the ATR aircraft for some time.
They currently have around 18 of the ATR turboprops which are used on small short routes competing with the likes of SpiceJet and IndiGo. It is hoped that by sub-leasing some of the ATR72s out the Jet Airways will be able to focus more on lucrative international operations.
Senthil Raja, of TruJet, confirmed the carrier was in talks with Jet Airways to take seven ATR72-500 aircraft on a five-year “wet lease” type deal. If all goes ahead, he expects TruJet would receive the aircraft by the end of October.
