http://www.business-standard.com/smartinvestor/storypage.php?hpFlag=Y&chklog in=N&autono=212532&leftnm=lmnu6&leftindx=6&lselect=0
Taking Wing Shobhana Subramanian / Mumbai January 23, 2006 <A large part of Air Sahara's capacity is deployed on Category 1 routes so Jet is not adding too many new routes," he says, adding that with the overlap on some routes, Jet may not be in a position to take full advantage of an 12 per cent market share. However, the general consensus among sector watchers is that passengers who were flying Sahara are unlikely to fly any other airline but Jet. "The fares on Jet are more or less comparable, it is reputed for its punctuality and the service is superior to Sahara's. So if 48 out of a hundred passengers were flying with Jet and Sahara on the same routes , they are all likely to fly Jet now. So, with more flights, Jet should be able to realize revenues from the entire 12 per cent share that it is acquiring, " observes an analyst. .... Though Jet could opt to change its business model to one which operates in both the business and value segments, E&Y's Desai believes that Jet would do well to continue to cater primarily for business traffic. **"The LCC model is unlikely to work too well in India, given the inadequate infrastructure," he explains, **adding that the relatively low employee costs in India leave the cost structures of all carriers at similar levels, so that LCCs don't really have an edge. Jet has all along positioned itself as the businessman's airline, setting new standards for service, in addition to increasing the frequency of flights on key routes at convenient times.> ----------------- Let's see if the new entity's flights to Dabolim increase or (as is more likely) decrease! Sahara seems to have only two flights, one each from Delhi and Mumbai. These may well be deleted to increase load factors on existing Jet flights. Let's hope the slots are allotted to the low cost carriers (LCCs).