DRMumbai: As per reports, Air France-KLM wants to deepen its alliance with Jet Airways (India) Ltd. The former has signed an enhanced cooperation agreement with the Indian carrier last year to exploit an expected double-digit growth in the air travel markets of India and North America, Pieter Elbers, President and CEO, KLM, said on Wednesday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the International Aviation Summit-India in New Delhi, he said, “First we put connections and code-share in place on each other’s network. Now we are taking it (the alliance with Jet Airways) to the next level in terms of customer interface.”
Air France-KLM and Jet Airways are also working towards aligning their frequent flyer programmes, he said.
The November 2017 pact gave Jet Airways wider access to Europe and North America. For Air France-KLM, the partnership increased their access to the Indian market, one of the world’s fastest-growing.
He said compared to the time it took to build alliances in the US and China, he was very impressed with the speed at which things were moving forward with Jet Airways.
Air France-KLM sees Jet Airways as an integral partner to connect India to the US through hubs in Amsterdam and Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport in Paris.
“Everyone knows that there is a huge flow of passengers from India and the US. Using our hubs in Amsterdam and CDG, which are two of the strongest hubs in Europe and connecting them directly to the network of Jet Airways is helping us,” he said.
“We now have a strong position in the Europe, the US and Indian markets. We have seen double-digit growth (in the Indian and the US market),” he added.
