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As Bangalore Aviation reported last month, Indian full service carrier Jet Airways is likely to move its long standing trans-Atlantic scissors hub to Amsterdam in conjunction with its new part-owner Etihad Airways. Late last week, Jet applied for the following slots at Amsterdam for the IATA Winter 2013/14 season.
9W 224 – DEL – AMS –> arr: 09.40 333 daily
9W 224 – AMS – YYZ –> dep: 12.10 333 daily
9W 223 – YYZ – AMS –> arr: 09.40 333 daily
9W 223 – AMS – DEL –> dep: 12.10 333 daily
9W 231 – BOM – AMS –> arr: 09.40 333 daily
9W 232 – AMS – BOM –> dep: 12.10 333 daily
Interestingly, Jet Airways has not requested slots between Amsterdam and Newark. Currently, Mumbai-Brussels-Newark is the best performing of Jet Airways’ North American routes, and it is surprising that Jet Airways has not requested slots for Amsterdam-Newark, though the route is already served by both United Airlines and Delta Air Lines.
Of course, Jet Airways could be moving towards participation in the trans-Atlantic joint venture partnership with Delta, KLM, Air France, and Alitalia. This partnership allows member airlines to proportionally share costs and revenues, jointly discuss strategy, and generally act as one airline across the Atlantic.
Delta’s existing flight 35 between Amsterdam and Newark departs at 12:50 pm daily (the return arrives into Amsterdam at 7:35 am) and is locked into that time by slot constraints at Newark Airport. However, this timing fits perfectly with the slots Jet has requested at Amsterdam and would allow for an effective scissors hub while only allocating three aircraft (one each for DEL-AMS-YYZ, YYZ-AMS-DEL, BOM-AMS-BOM) as opposed to the current four, freeing up one aircraft for use by Etihad. On Delta’s end, their existing Amsterdam-Mumbai service could be passed off
However, it also brings up the question of what will happen to Jet Airway’s current slots in Newark. They can be potentially used by Etihad to launch Newark services; in fact a Mumbai-Abu Dhabi-Newark routing utilizing a Jet 777-300ER would be highly effective and help boost Etihad’s connectivity whilst also ensuring Newark access on Jet Airways metal.
