Jazeera launches flights to Mumbai, Delhi

NEW DELHI: Kuwait's new budget carrier Jazeera Airways has launched flights to Mumbai and Delhi, with plans of increasing the number of destinations over the next six months. Jazeera, the first private airline in West Asia, is competing with state-owned Kuwait Airways.

It plans to connect at least four more destinations — Kochi, Trivandrum, Hyderabad and Bangalore — in the coming months following likely revision in the bilateral air services agreement between India and Kuwait later this month. To start with, the airline would be operating three and six flights each week to Delhi and Mumbai respectively, Marwan Boodai, Chairman & CEO, Jazeera Airways, told ET.

Jazeera follows a two-class structure — Jazeera (economy) and Jazeera Plus (premium economy). Boodai said the half a million strong Indian expat population living in Kuwait is likely to account for 65% of the passenger load factor with the remaining filled in by business and leisure travellers between the countries.

Middle-East destinations currently account for 34% of India’s outbound air travel. “As per our assessment of the Indian market, there is a potential for tripling air capacity supply between India and Kuwait,” Mr Boodai said.