Air India to operate daily flights to Abu Dhabi

Dubai: Air India, India's flagship carrier, is to expand its services to offer daily flights to Abu Dhabi from November 1.

The airline currently operates five flights a week, the Abu Dhabi Airports Co (ADAC) said yesterday.

"ADAC is preparing to welcome an Air India daily service from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi International Airport, starting November 1, 2010," a company spokesman said.

"This frequency increase from five flights per week to daily came as a response to the growing demand that the market is witnessing for more flights to and from the Indian Subcontinent," an ADAC statement said.

During the first half of 2010, passenger traffic on the Indian market has recorded an increase of 17 per cent, compared with the same period in 2009.

Air India Abu Dhabi and Al Ain manager Jagmit Singh said: "Air India is pleased to announce this increase in frequency on the Mumbai — Abu Dhabi route, which reflects our confidence in the Abu Dhabi market; a market which is progressing towards its impressive vision for 2030".

"We believe this is just the beginning of future successes and closer ties between our two countries," Singh said.

These additional services would raise Air India's total number of flights to Abu Dhabi to 14, connecting the UAE capital with both Mumbai and Delhi, the company said.

Air India would operate an A321 aircraft departing daily from Abu Dhabi at 02.40am local time, arriving into Mumbai at 6:55am, local time. The aircraft would offer both business and economy class services, a company spokesman said.

Ahmad Al Haddabi, Senior Vice-President Airports Operations at ADAC said: "We are delighted to see that our airline partners are keen to expand their services to meet our passengers' growing demand".

"At ADAC, we continuously support such initiatives, assisting us in offering our customers more choices and putting us a step forward towards our goal in becoming a world class airport."