News

Exclusive: Kingfisher heads east

10 Dec 2008 by Mark Caswell

Hot on the heels of its Mumbai-London service (see online news, December 6) Kingfisher will add four routes next month. These will cover flights between India and Colombo, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Although Kingfisher has yet to make an official announcement in London the new flights can now be booked on its website. The new schedules will allow Kingfisher to provide London-originating passengers with through flights to Colombo via Bangalore thanks to convenient connections.

It’s good news for passengers flying between India and the Far East. Kingfisher will provide more competition to Jet Airways, Air India, SIA and Cathay Pacific who currently compete for passengers on services to Hong Kong and Singapore.

Kingfisher’s first new service will be Mumbai-Hong Kong. Operated by an Airbus A330, it begins on January 12. Flight IT31 will depart at 0015 to arrive at 0845. Return service IT32 departs Hong Kong at 1400 to arrive home at 1730.

Next up is Mumbai-Singapore, also byAirbus A330, starting on January 16. Flight IT21 will leave at 2340 arriving at 0740. Return flight IT22 departs at 0920 to arrive back at 1210.

Two services to Colombo are expected to launch on January 19. Both are flown by Airbus A320s. A new route from Bangalore sees flight IT63 leaving at 1500 and arriving in Colombo at 1620. Return service IT64 will depart at 0920 to arrive back at 1040.

A further service, also operated with an A320, will be out of Chennai. Flight IT61 leaves at 0715 to arrive in Colombo 0815. Inbound IT62 departs at 1730 to land back in India at 1830.

Flights will operate daily on all four routes. It had been thought that Kingfisher would operate eastwards by code-sharing with fellow Indian carrier Jet Airways (see online news, November 21).  But it seems the airline has decided to go it alone.

For more information visit flykingfisher.com.

Report by Alex McWhirter

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