SAN FRANCISCO: After its spectacular success on the India—US/Canada East coast sector, Jet Airways launched its West Coast operations with the first flight from Mumbai via Shanghai landing at San Francisco June 14. Likewise, the inaugral flight to Mumbai left the same evening.The incoming flight was commanded by Capt Jacobas, Jet Airways’ Chief Pilot 777 fleet.

The return flight was commanded by Capt Robert Farina. Both flights were full.San Francisco and Jet Airways spared no effort in making this historical day a memorable one. By 6pm June 14, Aisle 9 of the SFO International Termiinal was bustling with passengers. The counters were decorated with flowers and baloons and the mood was festive.The real party was at the departure hall where Jet Airways laid out a lavish spread of snacks and drinks.

Jet Airways top management was out in full force to welcome the passengers and the guests. Coming from Mumbai was the beautiful Harsha Pathare, Passenger Relation Executive. From New York it was Jet’s Head of Americas Nikos K Kardassis along with the the gorgeous Anu Vivek, Jet’s Gen Manager Business Development.

Jet’s San Francisco team was all there - Zainul Aljuneid, Manish Dureja, Manoj Shailendra, Ajay Grover, Herman J Wei, the beautiful Christina Duong and the vibrant Roselyn Ramos to mention a few. The excitement built up when the aircraft was spotted making its final approach and applause rang out when it touched down.

The Boeing 777 was greeted with a ceremonial water cannon by two fire trucks.There was a religious side to the evening’s celebrations. Dr Kishor Sharma did a pooja, Bhai Gurpreet Singh did an Ardaas, Imam Siraj Ahmed did a Namaz and Dua. Father William Rosario also prayed for Jet Airways and the pasengers.Consul General BS Prakash, Chinese Consul Tian Deyou and Jet Head of Americas Nikos Kardassis, cut the cake.

June 14 was a historical landmark not only for Jet but also for Indian aviation. This is the second direct connection between India and the US west coast. Air India operates out of LAX.Jet is also perhaps the first private airline in India to operate such prestigious routes. This will be a daily service between Mumbai and San Francisco. It took Jet Airways more than two years to get the necessary clearances from US authorities to fly to the United States.

The US State Department gave the go ahead November, 2006. Currently Jet operates flights from the East coast. Flights between Newark and Delhi began Aug 05 followed by Toronto – Chennai Sept 05 and JFK-Mumbai on Oct 28. These are daily flights that go via Brussels. What is so unique about their service is that all India bound and North America bound flights reach Brussels at about the same time.

This makes transfer to connecting flights relatively easy. A passenger bound for Chennai from Newark can transfer to the Toronto flight at Brussels in minimum time. Jet Airways is also considering starting flights to North America from Banglore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Kolkata apart from Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.In an exclusive interview with India Post, Jet Airways Regional President (USA / Canada ) Zainul Aljunied spoke in detail about the airline and its future plans. He expects that after SFO, Jet hopes to operate out of Los Angeles. “ We are still working on different options and proposals but this SFO flight will be a daily flight to Bombay with a stopover at Shanghai,” he said.

The airline will use their state of the art Boeing 777 planes for this route and is expected to be the fastest connection to India from the US west coast, spanning the distance trans Pacific in about 18 hours.The Jet Airways Boeing 777 is a wide body aircraft, bigger than the 747 and has a capacity of 400 depending on the seat configuration.In the case of Jet, their plane is the Boeing 777 ER with a capacity of eight first class cabins, 30 Premiere class seats and 274 economy seats.

Jet is perhaps the only airline offering a configuration of nine abreast (and not ten) in economy.Aljunied also brushed aside any suggestions of Jet eating into Air India’s marketshare. “We see Air India as our partners” he said.As for the fares, Aljunied reiterated that Jet’s fares are extremely competetive and at par with other carriers on the routes they fly.

“We are an extremely affordable airline with the most modern fleet and the best service and food” he said.Zainul Aljunied is no rookie in the Airline business.Born and raised in Singapore, he started his carreer with the erstwhile Mayan Airlines,MSA and Singapore Airways.He was the first manager of SQ in California way back in 1978 when SQ launched its service to the US West Coast “California here we come ‘’ Aljunied was the Regional VP for SQ (Mid East and Africa) based in Dubai.

He retired after 43 years and joined JetAirways.Likewise Jet Airways Sales Manager Manoj Shalendra is also no stranger in the business. With over 25 years experience Manoj is a veteran with stints in leading international airlines like Air India.Manoj sees a very bright future for Jet’s West Coast operations.

“There is tremendous scope for growth on this sector. In due course we hope to launch direct services between California and Amritsar and Ahmedabad,” he said. Manoj is the son of the legendary Shailendra, a Bollywood legend best remembered for the songs he penned for Raj Kapoor movies like Awara, Mera Naam Joker, Barsaat etc.

This of course be a big boon for the Indian community in California cnsidering the fact that Punjabis and Gujaratis form the majority of the Indian expatriate community here.Finally international carriers have realised the ground realities of India’s overseas population.