Mangaluru: Low-budget air carrier, Air India Express has launched direct flights to Saudi Arabia. The airline will operate flights connecting Mangaluru International Airport and the Saudi port city of Jeddah.
Jeddah is Mangaluru International Airport’s eighth international destination. The flight, IX 797, which connected Mangaluru to Jeddah, started as flight IX 1499 from Tiruchirappalli, opening up a new domestic route for Mangaluru. Every Wednesday, an aircraft will depart Tiruchirappalli via Mangaluru and return to Jeddah on Thursday.
Flight IX 499 Mangaluru-Jeddah will depart at 2.50 p.m. and reach Jeddah at 6.25 p.m. (local time). On the return leg, IX 498 will depart Jeddah at 7.25 p.m. (local time) and reach Mangaluru at 3.40 a.m. on Thursday.
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Air India Express is a subsidiary of India’s flag carrier airline Air India. The second-largest international airline out of Mangaluru, Air India Express claimed that it operates 47 flights each week to several domestic and foreign destinations, including Bengaluru, Tiruchirappalli, Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Dammam, Bahrain, Doha, Kuwait, Dubai, and Muscat.
Earlier the air carrier owned by Tata Group released its summer schedule. Generally, the summer schedule is from the last Sunday of March till the last Saturday of October. In 2024, the summer schedule will be from March 31 till October 26. The airline will operate 360 daily flights during the summer schedule. Compared to last year’s summer schedule, there will be an increase of over 25 per cent in domestic flights and more than 20 per cent rise in overseas services.
The airline will be increasing its frequencies to destinations such as Abu Dhabi, Dammam, Jeddah, and Sharjah. It it will add 24 additional flights every week between India and the UAE during this summer. The new flights will mainly operated to Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah and Dubai. The air carrier will add 4 more flights on the Dubai route to make the number of weekly flights 84. On Abu Dhabi route, there will be 43 flights a week, by adding 14 flights. The airline r will also increase flight frequency on Ras Al Khaimah route, by adding 6 more flights every week to take the total to 8.
Currently, Air India Express operates over 360 daily flights with a fleet of 67 aircraft — 39 Boeing 737s and 28 Airbus A320s. The air carrier is also in the process of completing the merger with AIX Connect (earlier known as AirAsia India) and the schedule includes flights of both carriers.
Air India Express is a subsidiary of Air India and a part of Tata Group. Air India Express is already operating aircraft with Biz seats across 70-plus routes in India.
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