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IA to start regular flights to Pakistan from January 9

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 30. Indian Airlines today announced regular flights on the Delhi-Lahore-Delhi sector beginning January 9, 2004. The national carrier will operate flights every Monday and Friday to Lahore and back from the capital.

According to an IA spokesperson here, bookings for Delhi-Lahore-Delhi flights will begin from tomorrow. For the time being, IA is adhering to the last IATA passenger fares of October 2003 which will be Rs. 3,745 for one-way for economy class and Rs. 6,795 for return. Similarly, it will be Rs. 4,870 one-way for business class and Rs. 8,830 for the return trip to Lahore from Delhi.

The spokesperson said a decision on the date of commencement of operations on the Mumbai-Karachi-Mumbai sector would be taken later. IA flights on this sector were withdrawn in the wake of the December 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament while IA last operated regular flights on the Delhi-Lahore sector in August 1992.

Resumption of IA operations to Pakistan comes in the backdrop of the SAARC summit scheduled for the first week of January in Islamabad. The airline will operate two special flights to Islamabad from Delhi on January 2 and another set of two special flights on the Delhi-Islamabad-Delhi sector on January 7, mainly for mediapersons, officials and diplomats attending the summit. All the four special flights will be operated on the basis of fully-paid passenger fares. All flights to Pakistan will be operated by Airbus A-320 aircraft.

The airline has recruited three staffers locally in Lahore and Karachi each and its offices are also being spruced up. Ground handling for IA flights will be done by the Pakistan International Airlines on a reciprocal basis.

Under the existing bilaterals between the two neighbours, 12 flights each can be operated by their respective carriers weekly but PIA was operating just six and Indian Airlines was operating thrice a week on the Mumbai-Karachi-Mumbai sector and twice a week to Lahore from Delhi.

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