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 come August 7. Hitherto, people wanting to go to Sharjah from Mangaluru had to do so via Dubai and then take a taxi or a bus to the third largest and third most populous city in the UAE, forming part of Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metro area. Dubai and Sharjah is 37.9-kms apart on the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road.

Flight 9W503 will depart Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) at Kenjar here 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 33 minutes. This will mark the third international flight of Jet Airways and the 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, 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 the airline also has plans to start daily/weekly flights to other Middle East destinations, details of which are either in the planning stage or under wraps. The introduction of the Sharjah flight will increase daily movements from MIA - domestic and international included to a maximum of 50 depending on the flight schedules of the various airlines that operate to and from MIA, he said.