An Indian airline is now worth more than American Airlines and United Airlines combined. Jet Airways’ IPO on the Bombay stock exchange last Friday was like a hipster concert: sold out in ten minutes and 50% oversubscribed (via Varnam and Winds of Change). The ~$400M IPO (~$1.2B in buying power) values the company at ~$2.2B at a price-to-earnings multiple of 21.5. That’s a higher valuation than NASDAQ darling JetBlue ($1.9B), American Airlines ($1.5B), Delta ($653M) and the bankrupt United ($142M), but lower than Southwest ($11B).
Meanwhile, the airline with ridiculously attentive service just got clearance to fly New York to Bombay starting in April. The route stops in Brussels, which is my nominee for having the most useless currency left over after a layover, the Belgian franc. Also thanks to the open skies agreement, state carrier Air-India can now fly out of San Francisco.
It’s not clear whether Jet’s bought the JFK landing slots yet, but I’m so looking forward to flying Jet again. And if they ever launch a discount airline, they can nick the sobriquets of the American carriers, calling it Tedwinder or Gana. Like United’s discount cousin, they could chop off the first part of their name and just call it T; or, since they’re a transport company, maybe even T Mobile.
With desis’ legendary respect for intellectual property, it might even fly 😉
Previous post on Jet Airways here.
Speaking as someone who endured Air India / indian Airline flights all through childhood, Jet is profoundly kickass. I took it from Bombay to Delhi last year–far more comfortable than the closed-window, 12 hour train ride from Delhi to Calcutta. but probably not as good an experience as the one from goa to bombay. open doors + moving train + scenery = fun.
The thing that bugs me about Indian air travel (at least how it was in early 2004) is how exclusive it is due to how expensive. i know that’ll change to some extent, but how much? and then what happens to the train system? i guess it’s somewhat inevitable given the way the country’s economy is going.
It’s still dispiriting to see malls in Leftist Bastion Calcutta right next to so many street- and slum-dwelling folks…
I flew Jet about 2 months ago from Mumbai to Bangalore. What impressed me the most about this airline was their culinary set. The napkins were made of this amazing fiber with some intricate tapestry. And overall there was a LOT of attention to detail.
On the other hand, I guess they are able to do this because they charge exorbitantly. US$250 for a round trip fare (1 hour each way); at their cost base !!!
On the international sectors, the fares are going to be more competitive, and so lets hope they can keep up their service !
The fares are half that for Indian passport holders or those who book via a travel agent in India. Which again is discriminatory pricing.
Tedwinder: if your Ted isn’t wound tightly enough …
I think your disdain for Brussels in misplaced. It has Euros (not Belgian Francs) as its currency and French food that Paris would wish could be made in France. What i am dismayed about is that the flights do not go directly to Delhi.
Thanks. Sadly, I was stuck with spare francs on a layover a year ago. Not sure why the ATM didn’t dispense euros.
In either case, one could be associated with a tastier veggie. Even Lima, Peru makes out better 🙂
Well there’s this budget airline called Deccan Air which starts dynamic pricing a la Southwest Airlines, and I managed to get a ticket from Bangalore to Hyderabad for 1700 rupees , that’s less than 40 dollars…and if you buy it months in advance you can get it less than $ 15 also…
In fact, it’s doing so well that, Indian Railways has come up with a Frequent Traveller Scheme so that their golden goose, the AC traveller do not migrate to the air in droves !
Jet is getting over rated gradually. They need to check their ground and inflight services.Over confident staff.They used to be very friendly.After all how do they define”good value for money”. It will be good for them to fly to London,New York and Toronto to start with. What with KingFisher ready to Fish
Isn’t Jet the only one of those airlines actually making a profit?
Great work done – keep it up. Wishing you all the best.
please start service from toronto, canada to mumbai via dubai or manchester