NEW DELHI: Jazeera Airways, Kuwait's new budget carrier, on Monday launched direct flights to Mumbai and Delhi with plans to add more Indian cities to its destination in the near future.

Jazeera, the first private airline in West Asia, is competing with the state-owned Kuwait Airways and has started its initial operations with a quota of 1,300 seats each week.

The airline would be operating three and six flights each week to Delhi and Mumbai respectively, Jazeera Chairman and CEO Marwan Boodai told reporters here. The airline, which now has three Airbus A-320s, would add another by this weekend and one more in the next six months, he said. The carrier had already placed firm orders for ten A-320s with options for another six.

Asked about the Indian cities it planned to serve, he said the airline would like to add Hyderabad and preferably Cochin to its Indian destinations to begin with. "It will depend on the bilateral air service talks between India and Kuwait later this month. But we are looking at many more destinations.''

On the fares being offered by the airline, the Jazeera Airways chief said the base promotional price was around ten Kuwaiti Dinar or about $30. He said the airline had a new low cost model with two classes — Jazeera and Jazeera Plus (premium economy). "Fares depend on the market-driven scenario and seasonal fluctuations. But the earlier you book, better the price you get.''

Observing that India was the largest market for West Asian airlines, he saw tremendous potential for growth in this sector. "Our airline brings easy online booking and payment, online seat reservations and brand new planes, offering freedom of travel and safety of our passengers,'' he added.

With the West Asian sector remaining the largest market for India outbound travellers accounting for 34 per cent, India's travel and tourism industry was the third fastest growing globally after China and Montenegro. ``Only two per cent of total India travels by air and there is a middle class comprising 10 per cent of total population, so one can see there is a tremendous potential for travel growth. We at Jazeera Airways are extremely positive about this growth,'' he said.

In the eight months of its operations Jazeera Airways has added ten destinations and it now flies to Dubai, Beirut, Amman, Bahrain, Aleppo, Luxor, Damascus and Alexandria apart from Delhi and Mumbai.

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