JetLite History

Established on 20th September 1991 as Sahara Airlines, the airline started operations on 3rd December 1993 with two Boeing 737-200 aircraft. Initially with its base in Delhi, Sahara Airlines cover northern sectors of India and later on expanded its services to all over the country. On 2nd October, 2000, Sahara Airlines was rebranded as Air Sahara but the airline's registered name remained Sahara Airlines. Air Sahara became an international carrier on 22nd March 2004 with the start of flights from Chennai to Colombo. However, in 2005 the airline suffered huge loss and it went ahead for a takeover deal with the then leading private carrier Jet Airways in early 2006. On January 19, 2006, Jet Airways announced its first takeover attempt by offering US$500 million to Air Sahara. But the deal failed due to offer price, and both the companies filed lawsuits seeking damages from each other.

On April 12, 2007 the second takeover attempt was made by Jet Airways with US$340 million that remained successful. On April 16, 2007, Jet Airways announced that Air Sahara will be renamed as JetLite and the takeover officially came into effect on April 20, 2007. Jet Airways repositioned JetLite as a low-cost carrier and stopped complimentary meal on-board. In addition to these, Jet Airways also withdrew many of the earlier routes, and introduced new routes.