Pluto Airlines, the private carrier set up earlier this year in Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will launch scheduled charter flights on 15 July.
Operating three wet-leased aircraft - an Airbus A310-300, an A320 and a Tupolev Tu-154 - Pluto will link Sharjah with Bahrain three times a week, and Doha with Beirut twice weekly. It will also fly to and from Muscat. Expanded fully scheduled services will start once a trade licence has been received.
Pluto says it is confident there is "high potential of passenger traffic - although there is a lot of competition". Emirates, Gulf Air and Qatar Airways offer frequent services on these routes, while Sharjah is only a short drive from Dubai.
In the long term, Pluto is negotiating with a Pakistani airline to start a service in August from Islamabad via Sharjah to Manchester. Within six months, Pluto is planning to acquire a second-hand Boeing 767-300 from the manufacturer.
Source: Flight International
