Jet Airways, India's premier international airline, is introducing new daily flights from Dammam to Thiruvananthapuram in the southern Indian state of Kerala, effective from March 28. Afzal Azam Baig, General Manager Jet Airways Saudi Arabia, told Saudi Gazette that the introduction of the new daily service from Dammam will further strengthen the airlines' presence in the Gulf sector, where it has emerged as one of the leading carriers in a relatively short period of time. “We will deploy a state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft on this route,” he said. Dammam will be the tenth destination in Jet Airways' Gulf network and its third in Saudi Arabia, and the new services from the city will complement the airline's existing daily Gulf operations from Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Doha, Kuwait, Muscat and Sharjah, as well as Jeddah and Riyadh to several cities in India. From March 28 onwards, Jet Airways Flight No. 9W 565 will depart Dammam at 2350 hrs, arriving in Thiruvananthapuram at 0715 hrs, the following day. Flight No. 9W 566 will depart Thiruvananthapuram at 2030 hrs arriving in Dammam at 2250 hrs. According to Fareed Al-Alawi, Vice President-Gulf and Middle East, Jet Airways, “Saudi Arabia is a very important market for Jet Airways on account of the large volume of traffic that it has to and from India. With the launch of our third daily service to Saudi Arabia, we are confident of further reinforcing our position among the leading carriers in the Indo-Gulf sector”. The airline currently flies daily to Mumbai from Riyadh and Jeddah.
