Airline increases flights to sub-continent.

Birmingham Airport and Air India celebrated the start of daily flights between Birmingham, Delhi and Amritsar on Sunday after the carrier took delivery of its 18th Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

By increasing services from four to seven, Air India now offers more than 3,500 seats on the route each week, with additional services operating on Sundays, Fridays and Saturdays. This growth comes just sixteen months after launching the Birmingham route, which has already carried around 110,000 passengers.

Speaking at the launch of the new schedule on Sunday evening, William Pearson, Birmingham Airport’s Aviation Development Director, said, “The start of this new schedule by Air India this weekend means that Midlanders now have even more choice and direct access to India from Birmingham and we are very thankful to Air India for recognising the huge demand in Birmingham’s catchment from business and leisure travellers.”

The West Midlands receives more foreign direct investment from India than any other region outside of London and Birmingham’s VFR market grew by 71% in 2013, now attracting more visitors from India than any English city other than London.

Vishwanath Panyam, Air India’s Astt. General Manager, added, “There is a vast market in the Midlands region, which is home more than 200,000 British-Indian people who visit India to visit friends and relatives as well as many Indian owned businesses. Air India is therefore pleased to be able to offer more capacity and connectivity to this market across the whole of India on the comfortable, quiet and state of the art Boeing-787 Dreamliner aircraft.”

The new programme is on sale now with attractive fares, through www.airindia.com or via travel agents.