It is not all so gloomy out there, or so it looks like. Jet Airways, the market leader in India, has ordered Next Generation 17 Boeing 737-800 planes this month from the Boeing company. And this, after it already has 10 737-800s which are still due to be received from Boeing as per the last order they placed aeons ago.The current order is a confirmation of a 20-B737-800s options that Boeing and Jet Airways guys had announced in 2007, but did not go ahead with at that time.

For Jet Airways, this means they have 27 Boeing 737-800s on order now, and which means that the next 1.5 years when these planes will come on-stream,Jet will perhaps replace the leased planes with owned ones.They already have 43 737-800 planes in their fleet, which is 100 planes large as of date. Jet will not just want to fly to more destinations locally in India, but expand regionally to newer destinations in the sub-continent. And the big-birds (the A330s and the B777s) will  be deployed for flying further away when the time is right. Jet Airways also has 10 787’s on the pipeline, which were originally supposed to come to them in 2011, but with the 787 program running with a 3-year delay, this will look more like 2014 now.

Hoping to spot a Jet Airways bird at Boeing on my trip there shortly!