Air India set for return to Birmingham Airport?

SPECULATION is rife that direct flights between Birmingham and India are set to resume later this summer.

Reports circulating in Asia suggest Air India is set to launch a four-times weekly service between Birmingham and Delhi from August 1.

Neither the airline or the airport has made any official comment on the matter, although the airport’s commercial director Martyn Lloyd has been quoted on various Indian media website as saying the move is “fantastic news” for Birmingham and the wider region.

Should the reports be true it would be the first time the Indian flag carrier has used the airport since moving its Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto service to Heathrow in 2008 in order to protect its slots there.

Various campaigns have been mounted in the intervening five years to try and entice the airline back; the latest in 2010 was backed with the submission of a 20,000-strong petition to the Indian aviation minister.

The airport had said it found it difficult to believe that while there were around 350,000 people of Indian origin living within an hour’s catchment of the airport there was no direct service to the sub-continent.

The issue was raised as recently as last week when UK Trade and Investment hosted a one-day conference entitled, Indian Business Day, at Edgbaston Stadium. Delegates said the need for better transport links between Birmingham and India was vital, especially if more foreign trade was to be encouraged.

The reports have said Air India will operate new Boeing 787 Dreamliners on the route and flights will operate each Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, arriving from Delhi in Birmingham at 7pm and then departing again at 9.30pm.

In its last year of operation at Birmingham, the Air India service carried 100,000 people and its load factors were often more than 85% full.