Virgin Atlantic resumes India ops, pledges 300 m investment

 Virgin Atlantic on Friday announced restarting of its India service with investments of upto £300 million in a programme of flights to both Mumbai and Delhi from London.

Briefing reporters on Friday, Virgin Atlantic Chairman Richard Branson said the launch of two new A330 aircraft on routes from London Heathrow to both Delhi and Mumbai represents a record product investment in the region for the airline.

The restarting of services on the London-Mumbai sector after a four-year hiatus will double capacity to India for Branson’s airline with daily services to both key markets.

“The importance of strengthening connections between the economies of New York, London and Mumbai cannot be emphasised enough – our daily connecting service from Mumbai all the way to New York will be a winner for businesses across all three continents," Branson said.

“We are introducing our newest aircraft on flights to both Mumbai and Delhi which represents hundreds of millions of pounds of investment and will create many new jobs.”  The move will also create 140 jobs across India and the UK.

Bangalore flight likely

The airline also said it would fly to Hyderabad, Bangalore and Goa as and when it gets the approvals. “We are planning to apply for flying rights to Hyderabad, Bangalore and Goa,” Branson said.

To a question on Kingfisher, Branson said he does not know what exactly went wrong with the airline, but wished its chairman Vijay Mallya good luck.

He was hopeful of making profit from India operations, adding currently traffic from India accounts for less than 5 per cent of the traffic.