Amid cash paucity, Jet Airways removes free meals from two more economy class fares

Cash-crunched Jet Airways has decided to do away with complimentary meals for economy class passengers travelling on domestic routes under two more fare categories as the full-service airline looks to trim costs. The revision in fare offerings will be effective for tickets booked from December 21, for travel starting January 7, Jet Airways said in a release Monday.

The carrier currently offers five fare options in the economy class - light, deal, saver, classic and flex - for customers booking flights on domestic routes.

“In addition to the light and deal categories introduced earlier, Jet Airways will offer two more categories under economy travel saver and classic,” Jet Airways said in a release.

The latest revision in complimentary meals would be available only for economy passengers who booked their tickets under the flex option, the release said.

The airline will continue to offer complimentary meals across saver and classic fare options to those passengers who have made bookings prior to December 21, it said.

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Jet Airways frequent flyers, holding platinum and gold card membership, will also continue to avail on-board complimentary meal facility as before, the airline added.

It had in 2016 introduced a tier-based flexible fare system.

The Naresh Goyal-led Jet Airways is seeking to reduce costs in several areas in its efforts to turn itself around.

The areas include sub-fleet simplification, reduction in sales and distribution and maintenance cost, route rationalisation, renegotiation of contracts with vendors, among others, following three consecutive quarterly losses.

The airline is aiming to achieve cost savings of over Rs 2,000 crore over the next two years through strategic initiatives, chief executive officer Vinay Dube had said after the second quarter earnings.

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Jet Airways has already realised cost savings of over Rs 500 crore during the first half of the fiscal owing to these cost-rationalisation measures, Dube had said.

Amid cash paucity, it has been defaulting on salary payments to its senior management, pilots and engineers. The airline has also grounded many of its aircraft and has been trimming workforce to cut cost.