A-I plans non-stop flights to Kuala Lumpur, S'pore

With three more leased Airbus A310 joining the fleet, Air-India will link Seoul and introduce non-stop flights from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur and from Mumbai to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur next month.

There will be three non-stop services each from Mumbai and Delhi to Kuala Lampur and four services between Mumbai and Singapore, V Thulasidas, A-I chairman and managing director said.

One Mumbai-Kuala Lumpur service will operate via Delhi and Hong Kong four times a week while three other services would operate up to Hong Kong, he said.

V K Verma, commercial director said the airline was looking for more aircraft to be taken on lease for deployment on other sectors also, both for Air-India and Air-India Express.

A-I Express is the budget airline, presently operating flights mostly out of Kerala to the Gulf. The airline is to convert two A310s into freighters and cargo services are to begin from 2007, he said.

Thulasidas said the low cost airline, whose load factor is as high as 95 per cent, is expecting four aircraft between January and April next year.

On the financial performance of the airline last fiscal, Thulasidas said, "We expect only marginal profits mainly because of high fuel prices".