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Come June 18, Air-India will have three non-stop flights a week with eye on Bangla traffic

By Rajesh Kumar, Section Tourism
Posted on Tue May 24, 2005 at 10:09:19 PM EST

The Calcutta-London-Calcutta service of Air-India is taxiing for take-off. The first flight will leave Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on June 18. The airline will operate three flights a week -- Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays -- on what will be its first west-bound, non-stop service out of this city.

The same flight will also service Dhaka, but the Calcutta-London-Calcutta sector will be non-stop. The airline now has three weekly flights to Mumbai from the city.

Calcutta will have flights to London six days a week. British Airways is currently the only airline with a direct service from Calcutta to London on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

"We will offer all three class configurations -- first class, as well as business and economy," explained N. Surin, commercial manager, eastern India, Air-India.

The start-off price tags will be Rs 1.4 lakh for first class and Rs 1.05 lakh for business class. The British Airways business class ticket comes to around Rs 1.17 lakh. So, choose our first class over their business class could be one of Air-India's sales pitches. The national carrier's introductory economy fare offer, till July 31, is Rs 25,810.

The expectations for the around-300-seater Boeing 777-200 aircraft is "almost full" from Calcutta. "One, because our fares from here are almost the same as from Mumbai. Also, we're capitalising on the Bangladesh market. We expect Dhaka passengers to account for over half the capacity," said Surin.

Further expansion depends on aircraft availability. "In the third phase, Air-India Express should also be in Calcutta, operating to Southeast Asia. In Phase I, Air-India Express connects the south, Mumbai and Delhi to the Gulf. Next, it will connect the south to Southeast Asia. So, it will be another year before it comes here."

While the rest of the country has taken wings, Calcutta lags behind, observed the Air-India commercial manager. "But things are changing and the market is different now. Maybe, in the future, we will have flights to Hong Kong, Tokyo, South Korea and China out of Calcutta," he added.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050525/asp/calcutta/story_4781294.asp

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