Top India private carrier eyes growth, warns Boeing
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Jet Airways Ltd (JET.BO), India's top private carrier, expects the slice of revenue it gets from international flights to keep growing despite a waning global economy, and warned Boeing (BA.N) it will demand compensation if there's further delays to the revolutionary 787.
Jet, founded in 1993 and controlled by billionaire chairman Naresh Goyal, competes with rivals Kingfisher Airlines (UBHL.BO) and Air India AI.UL for a slice of booming India, where air passenger traffic almost doubled between 2004 and 2007 on the back of rising incomes and a surging economy.
Goyal, whose airline is fighting stiff competition, soaring jet fuel prices and a global shortage of pilots, waved off a potential U.S. recession and a likely downturn in global air travel and sky-high jet fuel costs on Monday.
"In spite of subprime or whatever, India's GDP has been growing at 8.5 percent. Of course it's a serious situation. But in the U.S. there's two and a half to three million Indians there. These people have been traveling," Goyal, India's 41st richest man according to Forbes, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
Goyal said Jet Airways will not join a growing line of carriers demanding redress for a further six-month delay -- the third announced -- in the Boeing Dreamliner, but warned he would should Boeing push back the launch again.
This month, Goyal said he would sell up to 10 percent of his 80 percent stake in the firm through a private placement to raise $400 million. He added the carrier was still planning the launch of its delayed $400 million rights issue, but was mum about the time frame.
High operating costs and skyrocketing fuel prices will cause Indian carriers to lose $700 million in 2007/08, according to consultancy Ernst & Young.
(Reporting by Joseph Chaney; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)
