The Hindu Business Line : China Eastern to resume flights from Mumbai

Kolkata, Oct 26 China Eastern Airlines, commanding a fleet of 220 aircraft connecting to over 40 international routes and 100 domestic ones, plans to resume flight operations from Mumbai, and also begin operations from Bangalore and Chennai.

“We plan to resume flights from Mumbai. We are also looking at Bangalore and Chennai. We will start operations in one of these destinations in 2008,” Mr Ginger Jiang Wei, India Representative of China Eastern, told Business Line here.

The airlines will also start flights from Kolkata to Kunming, Capital of Yunnan province in China, three times a week by the end of this month.

China Eastern, which currently operates four flights a week from Delhi to Shanghai and Beijing, suspended operations from Mumbai a couple of years ago owing to “some technical reasons,” according to Mr Wei.

On commencement of flights from Kolkata, Mr Wei added, “Kunming is in close proximity to Kolkata, only two and half hours away by air. Moreover, there is a large Chinese population in this part of India. We expect the passenger load factor to be around 80 per cent,” Mr Wei said.

In Kolkata, China Eastern will initially operate a 50-seater Canadian Royal Jet aircraft and will change to Boeing 737 soon, depending on the demand. The round-trip to Kunming is likely to cost Rs 12,000 plus taxes.