The Hindu : Business : Mumbai-London service from Virgin Atlantic

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 01, 2005

Business

Business

Mumbai-London service from Virgin Atlantic

By Our Staff Correspondent

MUMBAI, MARCH 31. The Indian and British governments must have a proper `open skies' policy which would allow air fares to come down and more cities could be served, said Sir Richard Branson, Chairman, Virgin Altantic, while launching the commencement of Virgin's services to Mumbai. Airlines like Air India, Jet and Sahara should be allowed to fly anywhere in the U.K. and British Airways and Virgin Atlantic should be allowed to fly anywhere in India, he said.

Sir Richard thanked the Indian and British governments for the success of the last bilateral talks.

He urged them to reach an agreement on further frequencies in the talks scheduled for later this month. "We hope the talks produce sufficient new frequencies so that we can fulfil our ambition of flying triple daily services to India. We are looking forward to daily services to Mumbai and seven more to other cities. Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Amritsar are on our wish list. A lot more direct services would make sense." The launch of Virgin Atlantic's thrice-weekly services to Mumbai marks its second India route and is priced at Mumbai-London return at Rs. 27,000 upwards. The airline already operates daily services to Delhi.

Picture on last page

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business