NARESH GOYAL says Jet should have the service of Singapore Airlines and the reliability of Lufthansa

He's notoriously reclusive when it comes to talking to the media, and prefers to stay in the background and run the company. Naresh Goyal's current obsession is to make sure Jet Airways is the world's most tightly run airline despite the competition snapping at its heels.

Though it avidly wants to fly to trans-continental destinations, Jet has a tough battle to fight at home. Aggressive competitors like Air Sahara, Indian Airlines and low-fare airline Air Deccan are slowly chipping away at its marketshare.

Its marketshare dipped to 43.4 per cent in April-August as against 45.8 per cent in 2003-04. Jet wants to remain a full-service airline catering to the top-end of the market, but it cannot ignore the market growing at the bottom.

The market grew by 25 per cent between April and September this year; Jet could grow only by 13-15 per cent though its load factor has grown to 68-70 per cent in the last couple of months, from 60-62 per cent last year.

Goyal is trying to tap into this growth with innovative offerings and by strengthening the value proposition, while also ensuring that Jet remains a lean, mean machine. For instance, the company has come up with 'check fares' to sell spare capacity to low-budget travellers. These tickets are priced slightly higher than those being offered by Air Deccan. Jet's yield management system (YMS) allocates the low-fare seats according to the demand in a sector. It is a flexible system that ensures maximum utilisation of capacity.

Jet is trying to lower its break-even by optimising unit costs and revenue per passenger - two important factors that govern profitability. Last year, Jet had a seat factor of 65 per cent, but its break-even was 61-62 per cent.

The airline's philosophy is simple: keep costs low and continuously improve productivity and service levels. "Controlling costs is the key to survival, and the key to that is improving productivity,'' says Saroj Datta, executive director, Jet Airways.

Jet is relying on automation to drive efficiency and improve response time. For instance, it's using an automated rostering system to increase the utilisation of pilots. As the system improves, it could actually cut down on the number of pilots and lower the cost of operation.

The company is already outsourcing ramp handling, passenger handling, ticket checking, cargo, and loading and unloading in Delhi and Mumbai, and plans to do so in other cities as well.

Even as it woos the low-budget traveller, Jet Airways is trying to retain premium customers with its product promise of a quality reliable carrier - it enjoys a 'technical despatch reliability' of more than 99.5 per cent which fetched it the Boeing Award for the second year in a row.

The airline is also trying to build customer loyalty through frequent flier programmes, and has put in place a mechanism to get continuous feedback from customers and use it to set new benchmarks for service. That's what has made Jet Airways what it is today, and command respect.