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Dubai: Air India’s low-cost sister carrier (LCC), Air India Express, announced Wednesday that it had expanded its flight network by launching flights connecting Bengaluru to the UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi.
The airline said that Bengaluru, India’s IT capital, is the largest station for Air India Express with over 200 weekly flights.
With the addition of Bengaluru, the airline now operates direct flights to seven Indian destinations from Abu Dhabi: Kannur, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mangaluru, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, and Tiruchirappalli. Additionally, it offers one-stop itineraries connecting 17 Indian cities to Abu Dhabi.
“With the launch of the Bengaluru-Abu Dhabi flight, guests from cities such as Ayodhya, Bagdogra, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Goa, Guwahati, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Pune, Ranchi, Varanasi, and Visakhapatnam now have the option to connect conveniently to Abu Dhabi through one-stop itineraries via Bengaluru,” said an airline spokesperson.
Air India Express operates from Dubai to 12 cities in India, including Amritsar, Goa, Indore, Jaipur, Kannur, Kochi, Kozhikode, Lucknow, and Mangalore.
Following the Tata Group takeover, the airline underwent an image makeover last year. Unlike its sister concern, Air India, the budget carrier is more focused on operations in Tier 2 cities in the country. In an earlier interview with Gulf News, Aloke Singh, Managing Director of the budget airline, reaffirmed the carrier's commitment to improving UAE- India connectivity as soon as it starts taking delivery of new aircraft.
“By December 2024, we would have 50 new planes, which would increase our total fleet size to 100 aircraft,” Singh had said.