MANGALURU: Air connectivity to the Middle East from this coastal city will get a further boost with Jet Airways all set to introduce a daily flight to Sharjah from August 7. Hitherto, people wanting to go to Sharjah from Mangaluru had to go via Dubai and then drive down to the third largest and third most populous city in the UAE, forming part of Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metro area. Dubai and Sharjah are 37.9-km apart on the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road.

Flight 9W503 will depart from Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) for Sharjah at 9.30am and flight 9W504 will arrive from Sharjah to MIA at 5.55pm. The approximate flight duration between MIA (IXE) and Sharjah (SJH) at a distance of 2449.81-kms is 3 hours and 33 minutes. This will mark Jet Airways’ eighth daily flight in the international sector from MIA, J T Radhakrishna, airport director, MIA said.

At present, passengers have the option of flying to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Dammam, Bahrain, Kuwait and Doha with either Jet Airways or Air India, he said. Jet Airways offers daily service to Dubai and Abu Dhabi and Sharjah is the latest entrant. Passengers can go to other Middle East destinations – Dammam, Muscat, Doha, Bahrain and Kuwait three times a week and daily on two daily flights to Dubai and one daily flight to Abu Dhabi that Air India operates from MIA.

Jet Airways has already opened bookings for the Sharjah flight, Radhakrishna said, adding that the airline also has plans to start daily/weekly flights to other Middle East destinations.