Flight plan: Jeffery Smisek (left), president of Continental Airlines, with Laurent Recoura (centre), senior director (India), and Jim Summer Ford, vice-president of Europe and West Asia operations, in Mumbai on Wednesday. (PTI)

Mumbai, Oct. 3: New York-based Continental Airlines has started non-stop flights between Mumbai and New York from October 2.

Delta Airlines and Air India already fly from Mumbai to New York’s John F Kennedy Airport. But Continental is the only airline to connect Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

Continental had started the Delhi-New York non-stop service in 2005.

Mumbai is the 30th city in Continental’s trans-Atlantic network.

Jeffery Smisek, president of Continental Airlines, said: “We are proud to expand our network to India’s business capital. We were the first airline to launch a scheduled non-stop service between Delhi and New York in 2005.”

The company said a 285-seat Boeing-777 aircraft would operate the flights, carrying 235 passengers in economy class, with a minimum fare of Rs 36,000 plus taxes.

According to a leading travel agent, the minimum fare for a return flight will be around Rs 49,000 (including all applicable taxes) for a Mumbai-New York non-stop flight by Continental.

Continental’s minimum fare is slightly higher than Delta’s Rs 47,960. State-owned Air India’s fare is the highest, at Rs 51,700.

The flights will initially take off four times a week (Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday) at 11:45 pm from Mumbai.

There will be daily services from October 28.

Jet Airways also flies from Mumbai to New York via Brussels, with a minimum economy fare of Rs. 48,000.

The industry will witness a huge fare war in the coming days with Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines planning to start India-US flights from next year.