Jet Airways to start eighth direct flight to Saudi Arabia from India

NEW DELHI: Naresh Goyal promoted full service carrier Jet Airways announced an eighth daily direct flight from India to Saudi Arabia. The addition of the new direct flight to Dammam will be from Kozhikode, the third destination in Kerala after Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, to get a direct flight to Saudi Arabia.

The new flight, 9W 578 will depart Kozhikode at 10PM and arrive at Dammam at 12AM local time. The return flight will leave Dammam at 10.20AM local time and arrive at Kozhikode at 5.15PM local time.

The addition of the flight makes Jet Airways the largest Indian operator to Saudi Arabia. Jet’s connectivity to the Gulf region is already strong and the operator has daily flights to Abu Dhabi, Dammam, Doha, Muscat and Sharjah from Kochi while Kuwait is connected via Abu Dhabi. From Thiruvananthapuram, Jet Airways connects Dammam and Muscat on a daily basis.

The new flights will also give Jet Airways the achievement of becoming India’s first private airline to operate over 50 daily flights to multiple destinations in the Gulf.

“Jet Airways has already established itself as a prestigious brand in the intensely competitive India-Gulf sector in a relatively short period of time and the enhanced connectivity emphasizes the commitment to the growing market,” said Gaurang Shetty, senior vice-president- Commercial, Jet Airways. “

The new flight will see Jet Airways deploy the Boeing 737-800 narrow body aircraft. The aircraft will be offering Premiere and Economy seating.

On Wednesday, Jet Airways’ shares closed 1.17% lower on the BSE at Rs 232.