Mumbai, Nov. 25: Jet Airways, the largest domestic airline, and Citibank today launched a silver credit card to tap its economy class passengers.

The co-branded effort will allow the cardholder to earn 2 bonus jet privilege miles for every Rs 100 spent on the card, which can include hotel expenses, car rentals, meals at restaurants or plain shopping.

The alliance between the two is clearly targeted at Shatabdi and Rajdhani travellers and the upper class train traveller to switch over to flying.

The mid-air launch saw senior officials of the bank and the airline stating that even if 1 per cent of the 30 million rail travellers switch over to air travel, the domestic aviation industry could thrive.

IA cuts losses

A slew of marketing initiatives coupled with prudent cost-cutting measures is helping Indian Airlines (IA) to wipe out losses and move towards a breakeven, said CMD Sunil Arora.

With a little added effort of travel agents, IA could be in a position to break even in the current financial year, he added.

“Air travel which was looking up this year had helped the airline end 2002-03 with a net loss of Rs 197 crore against the estimated loss of Rs 245 crore,” he said.