DAMMAM, 5 June 2007 — Air-India has started direct flights from Dammam to Chennai from yesterday, according to Deepak Anand, Air-India manager in the Eastern Province. These flights will operate non-stop every Monday and Thursday.
Chennai is Air-India’s 7th destination in its flight operations from Dammam, the 37th year of the airline’s operations to the Eastern Province and coincided with its 75th year of international operations.
The daily frequencies on A310 freighter flights which will commence on June 15, with 4 flights in each direction, i.e., 4 flights West bound to Paris and Frankfurt and 4 flights East bound to Mumbai connecting to various points in India.
By the end of June 2007, these A310 cargo flights will be increased to a daily service between India and Europe, providing Dammam with 14 flights transiting every week with commercial traffic rights both to India and to Europe. Additionally, these freighter flights will also provide connections to Paris and Frankfurt and to other Air-India’s flights to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago in the US.
Air-India also has also definite plans to introduce two additional flights, one each to Delhi and Hyderabad by July 2007, which will be followed by additional flights each to Trivandrum and Calicut once additional aircraft capacity is made available. By the end of 2007, Air India would have stepped up its current operation of eight flights per week to 28 flights per week comprising of 14 passenger flights and 14 freighter flights.
