As per a leading business daily, Jet Airways will start a new no-frills carrier called Jet Airways Konnect. The fares for the service will be 10% to 15% lower than the normal Jet Airways economy fares. The company has not launched the new service under its JetLite brand due to pending litigation with the Sahara group. It may be noted that market share of the more expensive full service carriers has fallen due to the economic slowdown.
There is a beleif that the airlines industry is value destructive. As Warren Buffett once said, "Should you find yourself in a chronically-leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks." If only, our air carriers paid heed.
It is important to look at the holistic picture and have an individual opinion rather than get swayed away by the public consensus. This is the view of the man who pioneered the retailing boom in India - Mr. Kishore Biyani, the founder of India’s largest retailing company - Pantaloon. In an article in the Wall street Journal, Mr. Biyani wrote, "Almost daily doses of bad news on television screens and newspapers have possibly done as much damage to the economy as the events on either side of the Atlantic." I completely agree with him. Mr. Biyani’s predicament is based on the fact that an overwhelming majority of Indian consumers are self-employed, who can neither get laid off nor can have pay cuts. Consider some statistics he has provided. The share of the national income represented by proprietor-run concerns and partnerships is 35%. The share of companies is around 15%, government around 25%, and agriculture around 25%. Combine agriculture and the self-employed in industry a...
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