British Carrier Virgin Atlantic will re-launch its Mumbai-London daily flights, nearly three years after the airline announced withdrawal of flights from Mumbai.

The flights that are scheduled to start from October 29 this year will be done on the A330-300 with Upper Class Dreamsuite, a new offering from Virgin, the airline said in a statement on Thursday.

The announcement of launch of Virgin's flight comes at a time when domestic carriers such as Kingfisher Airlines have been forced to withdraw flights to London from Delhi and Mumbai due to the financial crisis. Some of the other international carriers such as Qantas and American Airlines have also withdrawn flights from India.

Virgin is not only connecting Mumbai to London but its daily flights will also offer easy connectivity from London Heathrow to New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington, the airline said. However, the Chicago service will be a seasonal service starting only in 2013. The stop-over time for US-connecting flights will have no more than couple of hours' wait, the airline said.

Virgin flights from New Delhi to London and New York have seen a growth of 20 per cent in 2011 and overall since Virgin stopped operating from Mumbai, over a million passengers have flown this market, the airline said.

“India's phenomenal growth continues to drive travel to the UK and the USA and we know our passengers are going to love the connections the new flights offers,” said Sir Richard Branson, President, Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Tickets for the Mumbai-London flight will be on sale with travel agents soon and available on Virgin's Web site from April 4.

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