When international airlines begin to eye the pie in the Calcutta sky, it?s time for the national carrier to taxi towards the runway. Air-India on Monday put a date to its long-awaited Calcutta-London flight path ? May 2005 ? and promised that more was in store.
Announcing the decision to take the Maharaja to the Queen?s own country, V. Thulasidas, chairman of Air-India, said: ?As part of focus on the region, three flights every week will connect Calcutta with London. The final decision will depend on the slots given by Heathrow airport.?
This would mark a zero-to-three jump on the scoresheet for Air-India, as it currently does not operate a single international flight from the city. ?The flight to London will provide connectivity to the rest of Europe and the US. We already have arrangements with Lufthansa for operating through Europe to US,? added Thulasidas.
Besides regular flights to London, Air-India also plans to connect Calcutta with Bangkok and Singapore by December 2005 through Air-India Express. Air-India Charters runs Air-India Express, the budget wing of the carrier. The first phase of the Air-India Express will, however, connect the Gulf with Kerala, Mumbai and Delhi.
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport has flashed on the Air-India radar in the wake of Indian Airlines adding three flights to Bangkok, Thai Airways starting two more flights a week on the Calcutta-Bangkok-Calcutta sector, Malaysia Airlines taking off on January 29 with three flights a week to Kuala Lumpur, and Gulf Air poised to add a third weekly flight.
Air-India currently operates two weekly hub (Mumbai) and spoke (Calcutta) flights for connectivity with international destinations. By March-end, one more flight will be added, keeping in mind the increased traffic from Calcutta.
Other plans for the city airport include increasing cargo handling capacity by 20 tonnes per week.
New destinations will be added, depending on the utilisation and delivery of aircraft, said Thulasidas. Responding to requests that more international flights land at Calcutta, he stated that of the 38 countries that have rights to operate from Calcutta, only nine have operations here.
?We have requested carriers of the Asean countries to operate at least seven times a week. In fact, Calcutta has been offered as additional entitlement to the regular flights. This is how British Airways was operating three flights over and above the normal flights,? he explained.
State IT minister Manabendra Mukherjee was critical of the non-availability of direct flights to the East Coast of the US, affecting prospects of IT investments in the state.
Mukherjee added that even if the state government pursued the matter with airlines overseas, the final decision would depend on the Union government.
The IT minister said that state officials were in dialogue for connectivity with China, Germany and Japan.
Sources in the government added that the state was in talks with United Airlines, which has close links with Calcutta through SkyTech, jointly promoted by The Chatterjee Group and the airlines.
As far as flights between the Gulf and the three other Indian cities go, May 2005 will be the month of commencement, clarified Thulasidas.
?This is in response to the demand from a large number of non-resident Indians in the Gulf for direct connectivity. Being a price-sensitive market, the route is best suited for budget flights,? he explained.
