British Airways Plans New India Flights

New Delhi: British Airways, which has been flying to India for more than 100 years, will look to further expand routes and frequency of flights as well as tap the cargo opportunities from the India-UK free trade agreement, the airline's Chairman and CEO, Sean Doyle has said. Currently, the airline operates 56 flights a week from five Indian cities, including three-weekly flights from Mumbai, double daily services from Delhi. It also has daily flight from Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. In an exclusive interview to media, Doyle said India is a "very, very important" market for British Airways and hopes to continue with expansion in the future in terms of both routes and flight frequencies. From October this year, the airline is set to re-introduce first class seats in one of the flights in the Mumbai-London Heathrow route, after a gap of nearly five years. "I think we want to be part of the growth of aviation in India. We have been part of it for 100 years... about 2,500 people work for British Airways in India... outside of the United States, our biggest single market is India," he said.