THE RIGHT STUFF: Zhang Jingwei, Jet Airways' General Manager in China, has suceessfully
marketed the Indian carrier's new flight from Mumbai to San Francisco via Shanghai

Jet Airways (India) Ltd., India's second largest internatonal airline established in 1993, started its inaugural daily Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flight on June 14, becoming the first private Indian carrier to operate to China.

China became India's largest trade partner last year with bilateral trade volume reaching $38.7 billion, a 32-fold increase from that in 1995 or an annual growth of 34 percent. The passenger traffic volume between China and India was about 600,000 while there were only 22 flights shuttling between the two countries every week last year-too few to meet the demands of business travelers, tourists and other passengers.

Jet Airways submitted an application to start the new route with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in early 2007. Although the two countries earlier had signed a memorandum on Sino-Indian civil aviation transportation in April 2005, the CAAC did not approve the application until Zhang Jingwei became Jet Airways' General Manager in China in January 2008.

First stop-Shanghai

Upon taking his post, Zhang discovered there was an unsettled issue regarding "fifth freedom traffic rights" in the Sino-Indian 2005 memorandum. This refers to the rights of an airline from one country to land in a second country and pick more passengers before flying to a third country.

"There were difficulties for us, because no Chinese airline had ever launched direct flights between Shanghai and San Francisco," said Zhang.

After much communication and coordination, the civil aviation administrations of both sides met in New Delhi on March 19 to revise the 2005 memorandum. They reached an agreement to let Jet Airways start the Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flights and signed a new memorandum the next day.

Jet Airways submitted another application to the CAAC at the end of March and received approval on April 16, becoming the first foreign airline to be granted "fifth freedom traffic rights" by China to operate flights from China to the United States.

Marketing breakthrough

After the introduction of the new flight route, Zhang faced a tougher challenge in securing a desired market share from the many rivals that were already operating flights from Shanghai to San Francisco.

"Let the brand play on the emotional connection between an enterprise and the clients, which is where the value of a brand lies," Zhang said, stressing the importance of brand publicity in marketing. "We will convey through varied channels the brand image of Jet Airways to high-end clients who value flight quality."

As one of these measures, Zhang posted advertisements for the flight service on trains that run along Shanghai's east-west subway Line 2, which connects to the terminal for the high-speed, magnetically levitated train that runs to and from Shanghai's Pudong International Airport.