KATHMANDU: Jet Airways, India’s premium international airlines, has started Mumbai-Kathmandu-Mumbai flights from Wednesday. The airlines will conduct five flights — Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday — between Kathmandu and Mumbai a week by Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

Jet Airways flight 9W 266 will depart from Mumbai at 8:05 am and arrive in Kathmandu at 10:55 am. Flight 9W 265

will then leave Kathmandu at 11:55 am and reach Mumbai

at 2:20 pm. “We are planning to make daily flights from next year,” said PK Singha, vice-president of Jet Airways.

Jet Airways currently operates 26 flights between Nepal and India. There are two Jet Airways flights between Kathmandu and New Delhi in a day. JetLite, a subsidiary of Jet Airways, offers one daily flight on these destinations.

Jet Airways has good domestic and international network from Mumbai. “Mumbai is a good place of transit to Gulf countries, North America, Europe and South-East Asia,” Singha said adding Kathmandu-Mumbai flights will provide seamless connectivity between Nepal and other destinations. Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) chief executive officer Prachanda Man Shrestha said, “NTB believes the flight link will be beneficial for Nepal Tourism Year 2011.” The number of Indian tourists has rapidly increased in recent months — experiencing a growth of 20 per cent and 16 per cent in October and November, respectively.

Jet Airway’s Mumbai-Kathmandu flight has 144 seats including 20 business class seats. The introductory price of the Kathmandu-Mumbai flight is NRs 16,000.