Mangaluru : Jet Airways, which began operating a daily flight between Mangaluru and Abu Dhabi on Sunday, is carrying out a study to ascertain whether introducing a direct flight from Mangaluru to Dammam in Saudi Arabia is feasible, said Raj Sivakumar, Chief Commercial Officer of the airline, here on Sunday.

Talking to reporters at Mangaluru International Airport, Mr. Sivakumar said that the airliner was seeing a good potential for direct flights to West Asian countries from Mangaluru.

In the domestic circuit, Mr. Sivakumar said that they would consider operating flights from Mangaluru to Chennai and Hyderabad, which, he added, were “possibilities” given the demand.

The direct flight to Abu Dhabi, which was the second daily flight by Jet Airways to West Asia after Dubai, would cater to a large number of persons going for jobs there. From Abu Dhabi, passengers can take any flight to Dubai. The service to Abu Dhabi will be alternatively available for passengers going to Europe and North America.

Mr. Sivakumar said that with the airliner having a tie-up with Etihad Airways, Jet Airways passengers can now reach 160 destinations in Europe and North America.

“Abu Dhabi is turning out to be a gateway (to Europe and North America) after our hubs in Mumbai and Delhi, which we are committed to continue,” he said.

As many as 162 passengers travelled in the inaugural flight from Mangaluru to Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Shivdas Shetty, whose family has roots in Mangaluru, was the flight captain.

The crew of the flight were Aditya Sharma (First Officer), Mahesh Das, Criscel Pereira, Ekta Mukherjee, Cedric Colaco and Amita R.

After reaching Abu Dhabi, the flight will return to Ahmedabad and then reach Mumbai.