Come September, Calcutta will have its third daily flight to Dhaka.

Jet Airways will start daily operations between the two cities from mid-September, “subject to the delivery of aircraft”, said Sudhakar Rao, the general manager (east) of the airline.

This will be Jet’s second international flight from the city. In January, it had launched a flight to Bangkok.

The new flight, to originate from Delhi, will take off from Calcutta at 8am and reach Dhaka at 9.15am (local time). It will leave the Bangladeshi capital at 10am (local time) and reach Delhi at noon.

Another aircraft will take off from Delhi at noon and arrive at the Bangladeshi capital at 2.30pm (local time). From Dhaka, it will start at 3.15pm (local time) and arrive in Calcutta at 3.30pm.

“The passengers will be connected to our Delhi-London-Delhi flights,” Rao said. “It will also be linked with Jet Airway’s Delhi-Brussels-Toronto service, which will start from September 5.”

The airline is targeting 65 per cent passenger load on the Delhi-Calcutta-Dhaka route. A Boeing 737-800 aircraft, with a seat configuration of 120, will be flown on the route.

According to travel industry sources, 500 passengers on an average travel daily between Calcutta and Dhaka. Several catch onward flights from there.

“The Calcutta-Dhaka market had slumped in the recent past, but it is picking up again,” said Anil Punjabi, the chairman (east) of the Travel Agents Federation of India. “With south-east Asia gaining popularity, Calcutta will get more passengers.”