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Airline offers travellers private cabin to India - for less than a BA first class seat
Last updated at 23:37pm on 25.04.07For most air passengers a nine hour flight involves the prospect of cramped leg room, a troubled sleep and meals delivered with plastic cutlery.
For first class customers of Jet Airways, however, the experience is a little more civilised.
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A life of luxury in the air: Each of the Jet Airlines cabins features an 83-inch bed
Passengers prepared to pay out just over £4,000 for a trip to Delhi will get to relax in their own 26 sq foot private room, separated from the rest of the cabin with colonial-style sliding doors.
And at £1200 cheaper than a first class ticket with British Airways, it is a luxury service that the airline - dubbed the "Orient Express of the Skies" - is confident will prove popular with customers.
Each cabin has dining for two
The exclusive mini-suites boast a wall-mounted 23 inch flat TV screen with more than 200 hours of the latest movies as well as a seat that converts into a seven foot bed - the world's longest.
Each passenger even has his or her personal hanging wardrobe as well as office facilities for working. Meals are served on hand-painted Bernardaud porcelain dinnerware with Dom Perignon and Krug among the champagnes on offer.
Top-down: It's all yours for £4,421.10
Each of Jet Airways' Boeing 777-300ER aircraft will have eight of the luxury suites and the first flight takes off from Heathrow on May 5.
The cabins were unveiled as the airline announced a £1.8billion investment and expansion plan plan including the purchase of 30 new long-haul aircraft.
A spokeswoman for the airline said: "We have created a suite in the sky, a home away from home, which offers the ultimate in privacy, luxury and comfort for discerning customers."
Room with a view
First class tickets for the suites on a return flight from London Heathrow to Mumbai in India will cost £4,421, compared to £5,674 for a first class ticket in a more conventional seat with British Airways in the first week of June.
Business class fares at £2,262 to Mumbai are designed to undercut Virgin Atlantic's £2,719 Upper Class fare. Passengers will have seats that converts to a 73-inch flat bed. There's also a communal bar.
Economy passengers will pay £367 return compared to £388 on Virgin and £425 with British Airways.
Privately owned Jet Airways was founded in 1991 by its London-based chairman Naresh Goyal, 57, who said in the capital : "Our aim is to offer a five star flight and to be one of the world's top five airlines within five years.
"Our new First class cabins are evocative of those great days of luxury travel, such as on the Orient Express and the luxury liners of yesteryear."
The airline launched in the UK in May 2005 and operates 29 flights a week from London Heathrow to major Indian cities.
Globally, it has a fleet of 62 aircraft, operating 340 daily flights to 50 destinations and has ambitious expansion plans across Europe, the US, Asia and Africa.
Next month the airline is to set up a new hub in Brussels from which UK passengers transferring from London, Manchester and Birmingham can switch to flights heading to the Unites States including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Francisco.
An estimated 1.5 million people fly between the UK and India each year.
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