Jet Airways starting daily, direct Delhi-Hong Kong service

Jet Airways, the privately owned airline based in Mumbai, India, is introducing daily, non-stop flights between Delhi in India and Hong Kong on September 30, 2009.

The state-of-the-art, wide-body Airbus 330-200 aircraft will be used on the Delhi-Hong Kong route, a statement from Jet Airways said.

This is Jet Airways’ second service to Hong Kong, with the airline already operating a daily, non-stop flight between Mumbai and Hong Kong, using Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

Jet Airways said it will start its inaugural flight to Delhi from Hong Kong on October 1, 2009 – China’s National Day, which is the anniversary of the founding, in 1949, of the People’s Republic of China.

Jet Airways Flight 9W 72 will – from September 30, 2009, to October 24, 2009; and from March 28, 2010, to October 30, 2010 – leave Delhi at 2250 hours and reach Hong Kong at 0705 hours. On the return leg, Flight 9W 71 is scheduled to take off from Hong Kong at 1330 hours and land in Delhi at 1650 hours.

Flight 9W 72 – from October 25, 2009, to March 27, 2010 – will depart Delhi at 2325 hours and reach Hong Kong at 0700 hours. In the return direction, Flight 9W 71 is to leave Hong Kong at 1330 hours and land in Delhi at 1720 hours.

Cathay Pacific, the flag-carrier airline of Hong Kong, currently operates the highest number of flights on the Delhi-Hong Kong route – with 16 flights a week. Cathay Pacific is followed, on the route, by Air India, India’s national carrier, with 7 flights a week.

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO of Jet Airways, said in the statement that there is a “continuing and strong demand for quality service” on the Delhi- Hong Kong route because of Hong Kong’s fame as a leading global destination for business as well as and leisure.

According to Prock-Schauer, the Première (Business Class) passengers will enjoy 180-degree, lie-flat beds in a herringbone configuration “that ensures easy aisle access from every seat,” an oversized table, telephony, laptop power, SMS, email as well as live text news. Also, the Première passengers can choose from a “sumptuous menu” of Indian and non-Indian cuisine plus a wide-ranging list of wines.

The facilities for the passengers in the Economy Class, the CEO of Jet Airways said in the statement, include ergonomically designed seats that are meant to minimise muscular and sinew tension, on-demand in-flight entertainment as also personal reading lights.

Jet Airways – with a fleet strength of 84 planes – operates services to 65 destinations.

In addition to services to cities in India,  Jet Airways flies to New York (John F Kennedy International Airport and Newark Airport), London (Heathrow Airport), Toronto, Brussels, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Bahrain, Kuwait, Doha, Muscat, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Jeddah and Riyadh (in Saudi Arabia).