MANAMA: India's Jet Airways will soon look at operating direct services to almost all of India's large cities, a top official said yesterday.
Jet Airways Gulf, Middle East and North Africa general manager Abraham Joseph said the immediate priority was to launch world-class services from Bahrain when it begins operations on January 5.
"We are starting off with a flight a day to Mumbai and Kochi, from Bahrain, both of which will be non-stop operations," said Mr Joseph.
"The 14 flights every week will operate state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft, in the configuration of 124 economy and 16 business class seats."
Mr Joseph was addressing the media during a luncheon organised at The Kebab Factory, Jawad Dome, in Barbar.
He was accompanied by Jet Airways Middle East and North Africa regional manager Shakir Kantawala, Al Fanar Travel general manager Suhaib Kidwai and Jawad Group marketing manager Syed Noor Mohammed. Al Fanar Travel, a Jawad Group company, is the general sales agents for Jet Airways in Bahrain.
Mr Joseph said flights to New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore from Bahrain would follow soon, depending on clearances from India's Civil Aviation authorities.
"The sky is the limit as far as we are concerned. We are open for anywhere in India."
He said they had earlier had very fruitful meetings with top Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA) officials, including Civil Aviation Under-Secretary Captain Abdulrahman Al Goud, who welcomed Jet Airways' operations from Bahrain.
"Captain Goud has assured us of world-class facilities in keeping with the airline's status. We also had very fruitful meetings with senior officials of Bahrain Airport Services (BAS) to discuss ground handling and catering facilities."
Jet Airways, , India's largest private airline, had been given the go-ahead to fly to Bahrain on September 14. India's Civil Aviation Ministry has allocated 2,100 seats every week to Jet's Bahrain operations.
Of these, 1,050 seats have been allocated for Kochi while the rest have been allocated to Mumbai.
The airline will operate full-service flights initially, operated by Jet Airways as well as its low cost arm, Jet Lite, to offer an all-economy budget service later.
Jet Lite, formerly Air Sahara, is now a subsidiary of Jet Airways.
According to the schedule, a flight from Mumbai will arrive on January 5 at 7.15am and depart for Kochi at 8.45am. Later that evening, a flight from Kochi will arrive in Bahrain at 8pm and leave for Bombay at 9.30pm.
Mr Kantawala said the early morning arrival in Bombay, at 3.50am, had been timed in such a way that it would connect to all of Jet Airways' destinations within India. He said the fares would be around 10 per cent less than Gulf Air's.
