Private British airline Virgin Atlantic on Thursday said the memorandum of understanding signed between India and the UK, which substantially raises the number of flights between them, would give it an opportunity to increase its services from Mumbai and allow it to operate to additional Indian destinations.
Virgin Atlantic Chairman Richard Branson said the airline would like to be granted the rights to fly a daily service to Mumbai from this winter and operate at least seven services a week to other Indian destinations.
Virgin now operates dailly services from Delhi and three from Mumbai.
Under the MoU signed on Wednesday by civil aviation secretary Ajay Prasad and Director of Trade and Investment in British High Commission Stepher Lillie, the two countries decided to increase the total number of flights from the existing 40 to 130 per week.
Indian carriers can now operate 56 flights from Delhi and Mumbai to London's Heathrow airport and have unlimited flights from India to UK on all other routes. It would also facilitate 56 flights per week from London to New Delhi and Mumbai, 14 flights per week connecting the UK airports with Chennai and Bangalore and seven flights per week connecting the UK destinations with other international airports in India.
