AI's direct flight from Delhi to Melbourne in Nov

Government-owned Air India is starting a direct flight from Melbourne to Delhi in November.

It will also book passengers from there for destinations in West Asia and Britain, via their hub in New Delhi.

"We will be the first airline to have a direct flight to Melbourne," said a senior AI official, who did not want to be identified.

AI used to operate flights to Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in Australia but these were not direct; they went via Singapore. These flights were later stopped.

AI recently said it would make the new Terminal 3 at  Delhi airport its hub and committed to the airport operator to bring in 10-13 million passengers annually, a third of the unit's annual handling capacity, in two years.

It also committed to go in for a three-fold increase in its deployment of flights in and out of Delhi, from 480 a day to 1,200, starting from the next summer schedule. Currently, AI operates a little over 800 flights a day across the network.