Leading private carrier Jet Airways will launch a new economy service, 'Jet Airways Konnect', from Friday on select sectors, the airline announced on Thursday.

The company said in a regulatory statement that Jet Konnect would offer almost all services of the parent carrier and would help the airline cater to the needs of the consumers opting for low-fare services.

"The only difference will be that Jet Konnect travellers will have to buy their meals on-board," the company said. Both Jet Airways and its low-cost carrier JetLite now offer food to their travellers on-board.
In a bid to cash in on summer vacation rush, Jet Airways will launch new no-frills service. jet Konnect, the domestic private airline will provide 10-15 per cent cheaper airfare, connecting Mumbai with Bhopal, Udaipur and Ahmedabad.

The airline will also connect Chennai with Coimbatore, Madurai and Kochi and Bangalore with Pune and Mangalore.

"Jet Airways Konnect are beginning operations of Jet Airways Konnect, our new all-economy, no-frills service, from tomorrow. The airfare
will be 10-15 per cent lower on the new service compared to fares charged for our economy class," Jet Airways, Chief Commercial Officer, Sudhir Raghavan told reporters in Mumbai.

Without giving details, he said that fares will be cheaper on some routes by 20 per cent. The Naresh Goyal-led airline will deploy two Boeing 737-800s and six smaller aircraft or ATRs. "There will be 58 flights on a daily basis across 19 routes,

The ground and in-flight services of Jet Konnect will be handled by the airline employees, the statement said.

Initially, it will operate with two 737 and six ATR aircraft in sectors like Chennai-Coimbatore, Chennai-Madurai, Chennai-Kochi, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Bhopal, Mumbai-Udaipur, Bangalore-Pune and Bangalore-Mangalore.

"Consumer demands are changing rapidly in a dynamic global environment. We believe Jet Airways Konnect service will give us the flexibility and speed to deploy capacity to meet these changing trends," Jet Airways chief commercial officer Sudheer Raghavan said.

The company late last month had slashed salaries of its senior employees as part of its cost-cutting measures to cope with the slowdown.

Jet Airways' market share in the first quarter of 2009 stood at 25.3 per cent, while Kingfisher Airlines was ahead of it with 27.2 per cent.