Mumbai airport on Tuesday announced that it is all set to see a 27% boost in passenger traffic to London with the re-introduction of Virgin Atlantic’s service.
GVK, which operates the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), said the airport also sees passengers from smaller cities such as Goa, Ahmedabad and Rajkot travel to London in large numbers.
CSMIA, managed by GVK Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), announced the expansion of its flight frequency to the United Kingdom with the introduction of direct non-stop flights between Mumbai and London.
Virgin Atlantic’s first flight, a Boeing 787-900, arrived in Mumbai on Monday at 12.55 a.m. and departed for London at 3 a.m. The new service will be available to passengers throughout the week.
Majority-owned by Delta, the airline flew to Mumbai between 2005 and 2009 and again from 2012 to 2015 before withdrawing from the route. The withdrawal of Jet Airways from the sector gave the airline a chance to make a comeback. Mumbai airport handles 33 flights per week to London Heathrow.
An MIAL spokesperson said in FY 2018-19, over 5.50 lakh passengers travelled on the Mumbai-London-Mumbai route. Along with Virgin Atlantic, the Mumbai airport also inaugurated Air India’s flights to Kuwait (AI-0989 at 10.45 p.m.) and to Colombo AI-0275 at 11 p.m.) on October 27. “Since FY18-19, the airport has expanded its reach by introducing new airlines like Garuda Indonesia, Jazeera, Air Italy, RwandAir, Air Tanzania, Star Air and Uzbekistan Airways. The airport in the last 12 months introduced new routes to destinations like Bali, Milan, Tashkent, Manchester, Phuket, Guangzhou, Male and Dar es Salaam, among others,” the MIAL spokesperson said.
Among newer aircraft types, MIAL said it was handling Air Mauritius’s A330 Neo and A350 along with Singapore Airline’s new and refurbished A380R with premium first-class suites.
