Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai International) is planning to dry-lease around twenty A320 Family aircraft, including both ceo and neo generation units, by 2024, mostly using slots previously assigned to Russian airlines, India's Business Standard has reported.
The Press Trust of India revealed earlier that the first eight to ten aircraft would arrive by the end of 2022 to facilitate the carrier's restart.
"Due to certain global conditions, there are some aircraft which have become available with lessors which would have been available otherwise. We are yet to make a decision on our fleet plan but intend to ramp up operations fast and want to fly international routes by 2024, which means we will have at least 21 aircraft by then," Chief Executive Sanjiv Kapoor said.
Jet Airways plans to launch and grow in the early phase exclusively using dry-leased aircraft and will not, in the short term, add aircraft directly from manufacturers. However, it is reportedly in talks about more aircraft, including A220s.
The carrier's potential decision to add A320s would be a clear break from its past as Jet Airways exclusively operated Boeing narrowbodies before its April 2019 grounding. Its only Airbus aircraft were A330-200s, although the carrier's widebody fleet also comprised B777-300(ER)s. The airline, now under new ownership, used a single B737-800, VT-SXE (msn 34802), for recertification but said that it would plan its fleet strategy from scratch without looking back to its past.
Russian airlines are unable to take new Western-built aircraft either from their manufacturers or lessors due to the international sanctions imposed on the country for its invasion of Ukraine. The ch-aviation fleets module does not show any orders placed directly by Russian airlines with Airbus.
