The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Delta to discontinue Chennai flights

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 30, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Delta to discontinue Chennai flights

T.S. Shankar

CHENNAI: Delta Airlines, which began its daily Boeing-767 service to New York through Paris from Chennai on May 11 last year, will sever its Chennai connection from November 1.

Airline and airport sources told The Hindu that the U.S. carrier had announced scaling down of its Chennai operation with a tri-weekly link effective August 5 till October 27. Air France was marketing the Delta Airlines product under a code-share arrangement for the Chennai-Paris-Chennai sector.

Against this backdrop, it is interesting that Air France has announced introduction of its direct thrice-a-week Airbus-340 operations to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport from October 30, offering 30 business and 261 economy class seats, fulfilling the long-felt demand of travellers in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

But with Air France announcing its Chennai link, Delta Airlines would code-share with Air France the Chennai-Paris-Chennai sector. Air France's presence in India will increase: it already operates daily services to Mumbai and Delhi, offering five-times-a-week link to Bangalore. It is set to augment it as daily connection from November this year.

According to sources, the airline will, however, operate the new Boeing-777-200 jet aircraft between Mumbai and New York City.

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