Jet Airways to expand South India-Gulf connectivity
Jet Airways will operate new daily services from Hyderabad to Dammam and from Mangaluru to Sharjah from August 7, 2016. Dammam will be the second city in the Gulf region to be connected with Hyderabad by Jet Airways, after Abu Dhabi. With the addition of Sharjah, Jet Airways will operate to three cities in the Gulf region from Mangaluru. The airline currently operates daily flights to Abu Dhabi and Dubai from Mangaluru.
The new flights will benefit the large number of Indians travelling from to the Gulf region to Hyderabad and Mangaluru, from where they also have a choice of domestic connections to other Indian destinations.
Jet Airways flight 9W 206 will depart Hyderabad at 20:15 and arrive into Dammam at 22:30 (local time). The return flight Jet Airways 9W 205 will depart from Dammam at 23:30 (local time) and arrive into Hyderabad at 06:00. Whereas, Jet Airways flight 9W 504 will depart Mangaluru at 09:30, and arrive into Sharjah at 11:45 (local time). The return flight Jet Airways 9W 503 will depart from Sharjah at 12:45 (local time) and arrive into Mangaluru at 17:55.
Gaurang Shetty, director, Jet Airways, said, “Jet Airways is delighted to offer these new flight options to travellers to the Arabian Gulf. With economic ties between India and the Gulf region flourishing, Jet Airways recognises the need to provide more flight options to its passengers.”
Travel between India and the Gulf region is witnessing growth, with over 32 lakh flyers travelling to the Gulf countries from India between January to March 2016 and a similar number returning to India during the same period.
With the new flights, Jet Airways will operate around 640 weekly flights between India and 12 destinations in the Gulf, making it the largest operator connecting India to this region. The airline will deploy Boeing 737-800 Next Generation (NG) aircraft on this route.