(MENAFN- Bangladesh Monitor) Air India has resumed non-stop flights between Milan (MXP) and Delhi (DEL).
The inaugural Milano Mlpensa – Delhi flight, AI138, departed at 20:00 hours (local time) on February 1st with 249 passengers on board after a celebratory event at Milan's Malpensa Airport, and is set to land at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport at 08:00 hours (local time). Air India is now operating four times a week between the Milan and Delhi – on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
Operated by the next-generation Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, featuring 18 Business Class and 238 Economy Class seats, the service on the MXP-DEL route boosts non-stop connectivity between Europe and India for leisure and business travellers alike.
“With pleasure and satisfaction, we welcome Air India back to Malpensa”, says Mr. Andrea Tucci, Vice President Aviation Business Development at Sea.
“The carrier is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world and its decision to prioritize the re-introduction of Milano Malpensa further confirms the strong interest of the industry to the potentiality of our catchment area and to the North of Italy as destination.
The return of the Air India direct flight to Delhi in Malpensa network contributes to enhance the connectivity to and from the Asian region market which is the one that suffered the most from the isolation due to the pandemic crisis. From today onward Delhi will be the largest city served as destination at Malpensa with its 30 million inhabitants making it a huge potential of incoming traffic to Italy.
The investment of Air India on our airport will target the capacity of the North Italy catchment area, by intercepting both the market demand for business and tourism travel segments than the large presence of the resident Indian community. The HUB of Air India will also improve the commercial offer by strengthening the quality of connectivity to and from the Indian sub-continent to Asia and Oceania.
Commenting on this expansion, Mr Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial Officer, Air India, said,“The launch of our non-stop Delhi-Milan flights is a great step forward in our five-year transformational plan, Vihaan.AI, which – among other aspects – aims at strengthening Air India's global network as part of our vision to become a world-class international carrier.
The introduction of these flights will accelerate our plans in sync with our fleet expansion. We look forward to welcoming guests on this route to experience the positively changing Air India flying experience, of which the warmth of great Indian hospitality is a cornerstone.”
The service enables Air India customers from Italy and the rest of Europe to seamlessly connect (with same-terminal transfers at Delhi Airport's Terminal 3) to other popular Indian cities, such as Jodhpur, Varanasi, Mumbai, Kochi, Goa, Chennai, and Bengaluru, among others. Customers can also take convenient Air India connections to other countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia, such as Kathmandu, Colombo, Bangkok, Singapore, Sydney, and Melbourne.
Tourists intending to visit the Indian sub-continent and onwards to destinations in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and even Australia will benefit from this non-stop service between Milan and Delhi.
The resumption of this flight, along with Air India's imminent re-launch of services on the Vienna-Delhi and Copenhagen-Delhi routes as well as the planned Paris-Mumbai and Frankfurt-Mumbai flights will significantly strengthen the airline's footprint in Europe.
With the resumption of these flights, Air India will fly to seven cities in Europe with 79 weekly non-stop flights – 48 to the United Kingdom, and 31 to Continental Europe. This expansion comes as the airline continues to make progress in augmenting fleet with leased aircraft, and the return of existing aircraft to active service.
-B