Indian carrier Jet Airways is to introduce a direct service between Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and Charles de Gaulle Airport in the French capital, Paris. The new daily link will be launched from May 14, 2014, subject to regulatory approvals, and will be operated using an Airbus A330-200 widebody configured with 18 Premiere and 236 Economy seats.

The announcement of this new route marks the return of an Indian carrier on a city pair currently exclusively served by Air France. Air India had previously regularly served the Mumbai – Paris market but suspended its flights in October 2008, leaving the French national carrier with a monopoly. It now offers a daily Airbus A330-200 rotation in this market but had previously ustilised larger A340 and Boeing 747 and 777 equipment in the past.

The addition of the French link will expand the Jet Airways international network to 21 destinations and alongside point-to-point demand will provide a key gateway point for travel to several destinations across Europe via the Indian carrier’s codeshare and interline partners. The return departure from Paris to Mumbai will be the only evening departure from Continental Europe to the Indian city and will connect onwards to SAARC destinations including Colombo, Dhaka and Kathmandu.

“Jet Airways is delighted to launch its maiden service to Paris, one of the world’s top destinations and a key gateway point for airline guests traveling travelling between India and France,” said Gaurang Shetty, vice president commercial, Jet Airways. “By offering enhanced connections to several European cities from Paris with our code share partners, we are confident that this new flight would prove immensely popular with our guests.”

A further 15,000 seats will be introduced into the India – France market a month through the new link and will add to the existing flights of Air France between Paris and Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai and by Air India between Paris and Delhi. According to MIDT data, an estimated 587,000 bi-directional O&D passengers flew between the two countries in the year ending November 2013, down 4.8 per cent on the previous 12 month period. The Mumbai – Paris route accounted for 14.3 per cent of this O&D demand in the last 12 months.

In the table below we highlight the largest operators in the India – France market in the year ending November 2013 and compare with the previous 12 month period. As expected Air France dominates this market with a 23.4 per cent share of the O&D demand. Interestingly, Jet Airways already holds a 2.2 per cent share of the traffic through its existing codeshare and interline arrangements, albeit down 1.3 percentage points on the previous 12 months. It is the Gulf hub carriers that are enhancing their presence in this market, especially Etihad Airways who increased its O&D traffic by 57.9 per cent in the analysis period and Emirates Airline which boosted its share of the traffic 2.3 percentage points.