BENGALURU: As part of a larger strategy to create Bengaluru as its hub, Jet Airways on Tuesday announced the launch of direct flights between Bengaluru-Singapore and Bengaluru-Colombo.
While the services to Singapore will run from December 14, the flight to Colombo from Bengaluru will take off from January 5. The airways will deploy Boeing 737-800 Next Generation on these routes.
Having flown 2 million passengers in 2015-16 from Bengaluru alone, Jet Airways is anticipating that the city would play a key role in strengthening its reach. Singapore was a clear choice for the airways for services from Bengaluru as the city housed several start-ups with investments from Singapore-based entities. There has been a 15 percent growth y-o-y in the number of passengers travelling between Singapore and Bengaluru, a lot of leisure travellers also adding to the traffic in the route, said Praveen Iyer, Vice-President (Commercial).
That apart, the airways sees this route benefitting those travelling from Hyderabad, Mangaluru, Coimbathore and Thiruvananthapuram to onward destinations including Tokyo, Hong kong,Kuala Lumpur and Shangai among others.
Speaking to Express, Praveen said the plan was to create multiple options out of Bengaluru.
“We want to create Bengaluru as a future hub. What is critical is that we have ensured the Abu Dhabi-Singapore and Colombo connect. So Abu Dhabi can sell Singapore over Bengaluru and vice-versa (and other combinations thereof). It’s all about how you make connections work."
Jet Airways has witnessed 25-26 percent growth in capacity and similar growth in passenger number largely driven by price.