It’s ringing good news for international passengers planning to fly in and out of Mumbai airport, with several airlines announcing and launching new non-stop direct flights to New York, Manchester, Milan, Tashkent, Frankfurt, Phuket and Male.
While Jet Airways launched its first ever service to Manchester, Air India’s Mumbai-Frankfurt service has also taken off along with GoAir’s first ever international flights to Phuket and Male. Flights to New York and Milan by Air India and Air Italy will begin from December 7 and December 14 respectively.
Air India has ended an eight-year hiatus of serving the 6,564-kilometre Mumbai-Franfurt sector. When Air India last flew between the two cities in October 2010, it was using its Boeing 777-200s and 300s, offering a daily rotation. Air India is, however, now operating its fuel efficient Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the route.
An airport official said, “Besides Air Italy and Uzbekistan Airways, which are entering in the Mumbai market for the first time, national carrier Air India and private jetliners Jet Airways and GoAir will be launching new flights to international destinations from Mumbai.”
While Air Italy started operating five times a week non-stop service to Milan with an Airbus A330-200 aircraft from October 31, Uzbekistan Airways has introduced three direct flights in a week between capital Tashkent and Mumbai with an Airbus A320. Mumbai has also got a direct connection to Phuket in Thailand and Maldives’s capital Male with the low-cost carrier flying to these destinations from October 12 and October 14 respectively.
‘Strong growth’
Aloke Bajpai, CEO and co-founder, ixigo said, “There has been a strong growth in leisure and business outbound travel from India, driven by low air-fares, increase in disposable income and a changing attitude towards travel spends. With the number of Indian tourists travelling abroad set to double to 50 million in two years, airlines are launching non-stop services to destinations with a strong leisure potential to capitalise on this growing demand.”
Raj Sivakumar, senior vice-president – Worldwide Sales and Distribution, Jet Airways, said the launch of the maiden flight between Mumbai and Manchester would allow guests travelling to the U.K. to have multiple options to travel to destinations of their choice.
The new service will enable Jet Airways to offer over 8,500 seats every week, making it increasingly convenient for business guests, leisure travellers and students, to travel between India and U.K., strengthening commerce and tourism ties between the two countries.
“Manchester also becomes an additional gateway to North America with seamless connectivity to New York, Atlanta and other destinations with our code share partners Virgin Atlantic and Delta. Moreover, our Manchester-based guests can seamlessly connect on Jet Airways’ flights to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok and Colombo,” Mr. Sivakumar said.
The launch of the new service will also support with the recommendations of the UK Government, which has been promoting connectivity to other key cities in the UK, besides London Heathrow.
Sensing competition from Air India, U.S. carrier United has changed its aircraft to offer newer business class cabins on flights to Mumbai. The airline started operated its latest higher seating capacity aircraft, a Boeing 777-300ER, between Mumbai and New York/Newark routes from October 1, replacing the 777-200ER, which was being operated on the route.
Baring United, Air India is the only airline offering direct flights to the U.S. Harvinder Singh, country manager United Airlines, said, “The overall demand to the U.S. is fairly good. Most of our customers are corporate customers and for them there is a clear preference for a direct flight. The flight takes them directly to Newark [New Jersey] in 16 hours and from there they have connections to 90 destinations in the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean.”
