BA boosts India services

BRITISH Airways is expanding its flights to India following last week's agreement between the UK and Indian governments to increase services between the two countries.

From October, the flag carrier will double flights to Mumbai to two a day, start a new five times a week service to Bangalore and increase services to Chennai from two to six a week.

The Bangalore and Chennai services will be upgraded to a daily service from March next year, with Delhi flights increasing to two a day.

The move follows the successful Anglo-Indian bi-lateral talks last week. Under the previous deal, UK airlines could operate only 40 flights a week to and from India. Although India rejected an 'open skies' agreement, which would have allowed unlimited flights, it did bow to pressure to significantly increase the number of services allowed.

Virgin Atlantic and BMI are expected to follow BA's lead and launch more of their own services to the country.

BA's director of commercial planning Robert Boyle said: 'The liberalisation of air services between the UK and India is great news for consumers as previous restrictions have prevented us from increasing flights between the two countries. There is a huge demand for extra services and we are delighted that we are now able to satisfy that demand.'

Meanwhile, BA will also go head-to-head with Virgin on the Heathrow to Shanghai route from 1 June.