Jet Airways’ Manchester-Mumbai route, launched only a few months ago, was the only direct link between the English city and India.
And last August Jet Airways was so confident of its success it decided to up the flight frequency.
Jet Airways has financial problems, and has been not been operating many domestic and regional routes recently. But its wide-body aircraft operations to Europe and beyond have remained unchanged.
Now it would appear that the Manchester-Mumbai route (operated by a wide-body A330-200) is about to be cancelled.
Earlier today Airlineroute said that bookings for this service were not possible “on/after March 23”.
When Business Traveller checked the Jet Airways website this afternoon, the final direct flight was shown for travel on March 22.
After this date Jet Airways is offering indirect options via other hub airports.
Why? Probably because the yield or revenue per seat was below expectations.
Before Jet Airways entered the route there was already fierce competition price-wise from the Gulf carriers via their hubs at Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai.
And it must not be forgotten that Abu Dhabi-based Etihad already owns part of Mumbai-based Jet Airways.
Note that neither the airline nor Manchester Airport have issued any official statements.
Business Traveller will update this piece when further news is available.