Malaysia Airlines pulled out of the Calcutta skies early on Saturday with its last flight scheduled to leave Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at 1.30 am.

?No more flights of the airline will operate between Calcutta and Kuala Lumpur,? an official of Malaysia Airlines confirmed on Friday.

The official line of the airline is ?suspension of operations from Calcutta?, but it does amount to withdrawal, he admitted.

?It is an unfortunate development; the decision was purely due to business reasons,? said Sanjay Budhia, honorary consul of Malaysia in Calcutta, laying some of the blame on the price wars in the skies. ?But things are looking up in eastern India and we hope this is a temporary measure taken by the airline,? Budhia added.

The Malaysia Airlines bow-out comes exactly a week after Royal Jordanian withdrew operations from the city, leaving travel agents of the city jittery.

?There are a number of airlines planning to come to Calcutta and this might send out negative signals about the city,? said Anil Punjabi, chairman, eastern region, Travel Agents Federation of India. ?Also, tourists planning to travel to the Far East will have less flight choices now.?

Last January, Malaysia Airlines had launched its Calcutta operations with three flights. The withdrawal was put down to ?huge corporate losses? ? close to 1 billion Ringitt, said sources ? incurred during the last financial year.

Airline officials said Calcutta is among six destinations in Asia and Europe where operations are being suspended ? Ahmedabad, Vienna, Manchester, Padang and Xian.