Konnect is not a response to falling demand,

India’s leading private carrier by passenger load Jet Airways (India) Ltd last week announced its latest low-fare service Jet Airways Konnect. The new service, positioned as an all-economy, no-frills, low fare segment, is in addition to its already existing low-fare service JetLite (India) Ltd. The move comes at a time when Jet Airways was consistently losing market share to low fare carriers and was tied up in an ongoing legal tussle between Sahara Group (former owners of Air Sahara which later became Jet Lite) over payment issues. However, the sudden announcement of this new segment remains a bit of a mystery for analysts since it is largely the same model as the existing Jet Lite. Sudheer Raghavan, chief commercial officer, clears the air in an interview with Mint. Raghavan, who has been instrumental in launching the new service, says Konnect is not a response to falling demand, but to changing demand on certain domestic Jet Airways routes. He also says that since Jet and JetLite operate under two different permits, it was difficult to transfer assets (routes) to JetLite. Now, he said, Jet is studying new routes for conversion to Konnect services, and will likely announce them by the end of May. Edited excerpts: