Jet Airways all set to offer direct services from Bahrain in January

Manama: India's Jet Airways is looking forward to operate direct services to almost all of India's large cities from Bahrain, according to a top company official. This will of course depend on clearance being received from the country's civil aviation authorities.

According to Jet Airways Gulf, Middle East and North Africa general manager, Abraham Joseph, the immediate priority was to launch world-class services from Bahrain when  the airline 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 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."

According to Joseph, flights to New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore from Bahrain would follow soon, depending on clearances from India's civil aviation authorities.

Jet Airways, India's largest private airline, was given the go-ahead to fly to Bahrain in September with an allocation of 2,100 seats every week for this sector. The seats have been split fifty-fifty between Kochi and Mumbai.

The airline will operate full-service flights initially, which will be provided by Jet Airways, while its low cost arm, JetLite is likely to offer an all-economy budget service later.

JetLite, formerly Air Sahara, is now a subsidiary of Jet Airways.