Dubai: India's national carrier Air India is planning to increase its services between Oman's capital Muscat and Kochi in Kerala from the current thrice-a-week to daily within two months.

The airline is also planning to introduce services between Muscat and Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram soon, Abhay Pathak, regional manager for Middle East and Africa of the National Aviation Company of India (NACIL) told the Oman Tribune.

A large number of the 500,000-strong expatriate Indian community in Oman hails from Kerala. Air India's Oman country manager Aditya Mathur, speaking at an annual agents award function in Muscat, said the airline witnessed a 51 percent increase in passenger traffic and 44 percent increase in revenues in the year 2007-2008.

He added that the airline now had 24 flights a week from Muscat to India. It had also recently begun daily non-stop flights to New Delhi with connections to all major north Indian destinations. The airline also connects Muscat with Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Chennai.

 

Source : IANS