Travellers heading to India this year will find that when it comes to ease and convenience, Jet Airways delivers on both counts. The airline has been operating to Toronto for almost 10 years now, providing Canadians greater access to India’s top destinations. In this week’s edition of Friday Five, we sit down with Vinay Varma, Regional Manager – Canada to discuss Jet Airway’s global network and the new destinations it has planned for the coming year.

1. How many years has Jet Airways been operating in Canada? What is the Aircraft and product offered by 9w?

We operate a daily direct service to Amsterdam and onwards to Mumbai and Delhi in India. Currently we offer a three-class configuration operated by a B777. Our First Class product has its own private suites, with dual sliding doors, 180 degree flat bed, choice of authentic Indian and international cuisine, personal amenity kit, meeting and dining space for two, 23-inch LCD screen, BOSE noise cancelling headphones, night sky mood lighting, among many other exclusive features. Our Business class product (Première) is an experience unlike any other, with a 6ft 2.5-inch fully flat bed Herringbone seat configuration, which gives easy aisle access for every seat, a laptop plug-in socket at every seat, along with an in-built massager, gourmet meals with anytime dining, and a 15.4-inch screen to watch over 650 hours of premium in-flight entertainment.

2. Jet Airways European gateway is in Amsterdam, can you tell us more about it?

Jet Airways currently operates to Toronto via Amsterdam, which is also our European gateway. From Toronto our flights leave at a very convenient time of 19:00 hours daily, and arrives at 0800 hours in Amsterdam. From Amsterdam guests have the option to connect to our daily direct service to Delhi and Mumbai, or continue their onwards Journey within Europe with convenient connections with our interline partners. Currently we have over 50 European destinations that our guests can connect to from Toronto. We will soon be connecting Bangalore with Amsterdam and onwards to Toronto, thus bringing in more traffic from South India via a one-stop over Amsterdam. We have just completed a year of operations in Amsterdam with Schiphol Airport and are very happy with the comfort and convenience the airport provides to our transiting guests.

3. What are the main European destinations that Jet Airways connects via Amsterdam?

Jet Airways currently connects over 50 European destinations with our interline partners from Amsterdam. Amsterdam itself is a very popular tourist destination, which Jet Airways flies daily direct from Toronto. Other popular destinations are Paris, London, Rome, Milan, Geneva, Zurich, Barcelona, Madrid, Frankfurt, Athens, Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw among others. We offer convenient connections, through boarding passes and through baggage facilities to our European guests.

4. How many destinations does Jet Airways fly to and what is the fleet size?

Jet Airways operates flights to 65 destinations, including India and overseas. Jet Airways’ robust domestic India network spans the length and breadth of the country, covering metro cities, state capitals and emerging destinations. Beyond India, Jet Airways operates flights to key international destinations in the Middle East, Europe and North America, SAARC, South East Asia and the APRAC region. Our connectivity to the Middle East, Europe and North America are serviced by our own flights and also with our codeshare partners via a combination of four gateways at Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Paris and London Heathrow, in association with strategic partner Etihad Airways, and codeshare partners Delta Air Lines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Air France and Virgin Atlantic. The Jet Airways Group currently operates a fleet of 113 aircraft, comprising Boeing 777-300 ERs, Airbus A330-200/300, Next Generation Boeing 737s and ATR 72-500/600s.

5. What’s new for Jet Airways in 2017-2018?

We are very excited to launch new routes this year, which will also serve Canadian travellers. Starting Oct. 29 we will introduce a new Amsterdam to Bangalore service, which will have seamless connectivity from Toronto. The new flight will be operated daily with a two-class configuration in Premier and Economy. We will also launch a Paris to Chennai service the same day, which can be connected through our code share partners DL/AF/KL from Toronto via Paris. We continue to expand our codeshare partnerships and now connect our guests to nearly every corner of the world. We are excited about our three direct flight launches this year connecting Chennai with Paris, Bangalore to Amsterdam and the addition of a third daily direct flight from Mumbai to London, which will greatly enhance traffic into Canada.