News

Kingfisher poised to inaugurate London flights

13 Aug 2008 by Mark Caswell

India’s Kingfisher Airlines will make Bangalore-London its first international route, with the inaugural flight set for the first week in September. 

Kingfisher’s other proposed London service, departing Mumbai, will now be delayed with a possible start date later this year.

What is certain is that Kingfisher’s non-stop daily flight operated by a two-class Airbus A330-200 will depart Bangalore in the morning to arrive in Heathrow in the early afternoon. The return service is set to depart Heathrow in the evening which would then provide an early morning arrival in Bangalore on the following day. (See online news July 15 for details of the onboard product.)

The airline is in the midst of finalising prices for the new service but these are expected to be highly competititive. Kingfisher will have to price keenly because it will be up against British Airways which currently flies Heathrow-Bangalore daily non-stop with a larger four-class B747-400.

In other news Kingfisher admits that high fuel prices have prompted its delay plans to launch ultra long-haul non-stop flights with Airbus A340-500s between Bangalore, San Francisco and New York. The airline is unable to confirm or deny persistent reports that when these flights start they will be routed via Amsterdam (from where passengers will be able to connect onto the KLM/Skyteam global network) to economise on fuel costs (see online news, July 28).

Kingfisher (which operates an extensive domestic Indian network) has now established a toll-free number (0800 0470810) enabling UK-based passengers to make enquiries.

For more details go to flykingfisher.com.

Report by Alex McWhirter

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