Virgin Atlantic airline has increased flights between India and the UK to 35 from 14 in 2004.
MUMBAI: As traffic between India and the UK rises, Virgin Atlantic is planning to start services from Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. The airline has already established its presence in north and west India.
Virgin Atlantic, which started India operations in July 2000 with two flights a week, now boasts of two daily flights to London from Delhi and Mumbai each. “South India is a promising area, and we are estimating adequate potential to start our services.
The growth in traffic between India and the UK can be estimated from the fact that the number of flights have increased to 35 from 14 in 2004,” said Joe Thompson, general manager, India, Virgin Atlantic, who is expecting to take the final decision in near future.
The airline has also shown interest in investing in the Indian civil aviation sector once the government relaxes regulations for foreign airlines to pick up stake in domestic carriers.
“The Virgin group is interested in investing airlines across the globe. In India, aviation sector is booming and we are definitely looking at investing in India,” said Thompson.
The company is looking at picking up stake in domestic budget carriers. “But nothing has been decided... what I can say is that the market in India is definitely interesting and the conditions are good for investment,” Thompson said.
Terming the government policy of not allowing a foreign airline to pick up stake in domestic carriers, as a ‘setback’ to Virgin’s plans, Thompson said his company would be looking at opportunities once the Centre relaxes regulations.
According to civil aviation policy guidelines, no foreign airlines are allowed to buy stake in Indian carriers. “But the policy allows Richard Branson, the promoter of the arline, as an individual to invest in Indian carriers as the government allows FII up to 49% in the aviation sector,” market sources said.
Virgin had plans to pick up stake in Air Deccan and Branson had held discussions with the airline authorities but the talks remained unfruitful due to civil aviation policy guidelines. Virgin clarified that Branson was not interested in investing Air Deccan in his individual capacity.
The bilateral agreements between India and the UK have made the sector more competitive, as a result of which cost for travelling for a traveller has come down, added Thompson.
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