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| Founded | 1991 (as Sahara Airlines) | |||
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| Frequent-flyer program | Jet Privilege | |||
| Fleet size | 19 (+ 6 orders)[1] | |||
| Destinations | 30 | |||
| Company slogan | Emotionally Yours | |||
| Parent company | Tailwinds Limited | |||
| Headquarters | Mumbai, India | |||
| Key people | Subrata Roy (Founder) Naresh Goyal (Owner) |
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| Website | www.jetlite.com | |||
JetLite, formerly Air Sahara, is an airline based in Mumbai, India.[2] owned by Jet Airways, the airline operates scheduled services connecting metropolitan centres in India, it operates 110 flights daily. The airline also provides helicopters which are available for charter services and aerial photography.[3]
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The airlines was established on 20 September 1991 and began operations on 3 December 1993 with two Boeing 737-200 aircraft as Sahara Airlines. Initially services were primarily concentrated in the northern sectors of India, keeping Delhi as its base, and then operations were extended to cover all the country. Sahara Airlines was rebranded as Air Sahara on 2 October 2000, although Sahara Airlines remains the carrier's registered name. On 22 March 2004 it became an international carrier with the start of flights from Chennai to Colombo. It is part of the major Sahara India Pariwar business conglomerate. The uncertainty over the airline's fate has caused its share of the domestic Indian air transport market go down from approximately 11% in January 2006 to a reported 8.5% in April.
Jet Airways announced its first takeover attempt on 19 January 2006, offering US$500 million (2000 crore rupees) in cash for the airline.[4] Market reaction to the deal was mixed, with many analysts suggesting that Jet Airways was paying too much for Air Sahara. The Indian Civil Aviation Ministry gave approval in principle, but the deal was eventually called off over disagreements over price and the appointment of Jet chairman Naresh Goyal to the Air Sahara board. Following the failure of the deal, the companies filed lawsuits seeking damages from each other[5]
A second, eventually successful attempt was made on 12 April 2007 with Jet Airways agreeing to pay 1,450 crore ($340 million). The deal gave Jet a combined domestic market share of about 32%.
On 16 April Jet Airways announced that Air Sahara will be renamed as JetLite.[2] The takeover was officially completed on 20 April, when Jet Airways paid 400 crore.
Jet Airways are to merge JetLite with Jet Konnect in the future giving them a single LCC brand to focus on.[6]
As of April 2011, JetLite serves the following cities:[7]
Jet Lite current fleet consists of the following aircraft as of November 2011:
| Aircraft | In Service | Orders | Passengers | Notes |
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| Boeing 737-700 | 9 | — | 144 | |
| 149 | ||||
| Boeing 737-800 | 9 | 6 | 186 | 4 with winglets |
| Total | 18 | 6 |
Jet Lite also plan to induct the Airbus A320 to replace its Boeings in the future [8].
JetLite offers a buy on board service called ByteLite, offering food for purchase.
On 8 March 1994, a Boeing 737-2R4C (registered VT-SIA) was engaged in a training flight with an instructor and 3 trainee pilots. Five circuits and landings were completed uneventfully and during the sixth touch-and-go exercise, after the take off from runway 28 of Indira Gandhi International Airport, the aircraft made a left turn and crashed at the International Terminal Apron. The wreckage of aircraft hit an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-86 aircraft parked on Bay No. 45 as a result of which it also caught fire. Two Aeroflot employees, a Russian ground engineer and an airport worker were killed on the ground. The accident occurred due to application of wrong rudder by trainee pilot during engine failure exercise. Capt. did not guard/block the rudder control and give clear commands as Instructor so as to obviate the application of wrong rudder control by the trainee pilot.[9]
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