Jet Airways to close budget units by year-end

[NEW DELHI] Jet Airways India Ltd, the Indian carrier 24 per cent owned by Etihad Airways, will end its budget-airline units in an effort to turn its local operations profitable, chairman Naresh Goyal said.

The airline will close its Jetlite and JetKonnect businesses by the end of this year and fly all its planes under a single, full-service brand, Mr Goyal told reporters in Mumbai. The move will help it achieve its target of making a profit by 2017, he said.

"We are in this to make money," Etihad president James Hogan said at the same event.