If Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal can't stop Kingfisher Airlines from going overseas, he can certainly take a huge lead and stamp his footprint in a manner that even the highly ambitious and competitive chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, Vijay Mallya, may find hard to emulate.
It is on this premise that Jet has - ever since Kingfisher's going overseas became a distinct possibility - expanded its international operations with amazing focus. "We have been adding international routes and frequencies at a break-neck speed," says Jet CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, who says that Jet's strategy is independent of its rivals.
Even if Kingfisher Airlines launches by August 2008, it may find the distance between itself and Jet quite hard to cover. The first-mover advantage and the enormous spread that Jet will enjoy will make Goyal's shoes hard to step into.
Moreover, though some say that Jet's domestic in-flight standards have dropped, there are very few who don't have great things to say about the carrier's international offerings.
Text: Anjuli Bhargava
Image: Chairman of Jet Airways Naresh Goyal (R) performs puja before leaving on the Mumbai-Singapore innaugural flight
Photograph: Sebastian D'Souza/AFP/Getty Images
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