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Ashwini Phadnis

New Delhi , Aug. 28

INDIAN Airlines (IA) is looking to increase operations to the Gulf region from several points in South India.

Official sources told Business Line that the airlines plans include operating a three-times-a-week flight on the Chennai-Tiruchi-Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah sector apart from flying twice a week on the Chennai-Kozhikode-Sharjah-Kuwait sector.

The airline is also looking at the option of operating a five-times-a-week service on the Kozhikode-Dubai sector and having a daily flight on the Chennai-Dubai route. The other sectors being considered by the airline include Kozhikode-Riyadh (three-times-a-week), Hyderabad-Ahmedabad-Kuwait (once-a-week), Hyderabad-Riyadh (four-times-a-week) and Kolkata-Ahmedabad-Sharjah (three-times-a-week). IA plans to operate most of the services with an Airbus A-320 aircraft except flights to Saudi Arabia for which it plans to use wide body aircraft.

The airline has already requested the Ministry of Civil Aviation for permission to start these flights and also to begin operations to Saudi Arabia. The start of these flights is also dependent on adequate resources being available with IA, sources said.

The airline, which has already sent its proposal for acquiring 43 Airbus aircraft to the Government, has also drawn up plans to lease aircraft till then. IA has already inducted several leased Airbus A-320 aircraft and plans to start inducting leased Airbus A-319 aircraft later this year.

Besides, plans are also afoot to lease some wide-body aircraft.

This would allow the airline to better utilise the opportunities in the international arena especially as the Government has already designated IA to operate flights to Australia, the UK and the US. Besides, the airline has already received permission to commence operations to the UK.

The airline has been seeing a gradual increase in the number of passengers on its international flights.

While the airline carried 1.53 million passengers on its international operations during 2002-03, this peaked at 1.70 million during 2004-05. IA, apart from operating flights within the country, also offers regular flights to 18 international destinations in 15 countries.

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