Jet Airways sells its London Heathrow slots to Etihad. Cooperation or desperation for Jetihad?

by Devesh Agarwal and Vinay Bhaskara Yesterday, India’s largest private carrier sold its three precious landing slots at London Heathrow airport to Abu Dhabi, UAE based Etihad Airways for $70 million. Etihad will lease the slots back to Jet Airways for the time being. London is essentially THE destination for Jet Airways, which currently serves…

Air India selling a London-Heathrow slot is a smart move.

Yesterday, Air India chief executive Rohit Nandan announced that Air India would be withdrawing one of its two daily Delhi-London-Heathrow flights from February 2012 and auctioning off the slots. Currently, Air India competes on the sector with Kingfisher, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Jet Airways; all of whom offer more consistent products and command higher…