The Hindu Business Line : BMI has no immediate plans to reintroduce flights to India

New Delhi June 18 British Midlands Airlines (BMI), which withdrew services from Mumbai late last year, has no immediate plans for reintroducing it, the airline Deputy Chief Executive, Mr Tim Bye, has said.

Similarly, the Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Atlantic, Mr Steve Ridgway, said that the airline was unlikely to look at increasing capacity into India in the next 2-3 years. Virgin currently operates between London and both Delhi and Mumbai.

"We will not look at flying to India in the next one-or-two years. There is just too much capacity that has been put into the market too quickly. We may look at India in the future but not in the near future," Mr Bye told Business Line. The airline started operating to Mumbai in May 2005 and the service was withdrawn in September 2006. In a statement at the time that the flight was withdrawn, BMI had said that the suspension was due to a "long-term" technical problem with one of the three Airbus A-330 aircraft. The airline had "laid off" the staff that had been employed for the India operations, Mr Bye added.

Meanwhile, terming the Indian Government decision to conclude air services bilaterals with the UK as a "very enlightened" move, Mr Ridgway felt that this had led to too much capacity being added to the market.

"The airlines are growing into the capacity that has been created. The important thing is that the market is also growing and therefore we will go to the next stage when all the airlines will look to add capacity. This could happen in the next 2-3 years," Mr Ridgway said.