London: British carrier Virgin Airways, which threatened to pull out of India unless the Indian government permitted it to increase its frequency, has said it can provide Air India seven additional evening landing slots at Heathrow Airport if it is allowed to operate additional flights to Delhi.

"We can guarantee Air India seven additional evening landing slots at Heathrow provided they enable us to get seven flights a week to Delhi," its chairman Richard Branson said on June 24.

He was referring to Air India's demand for more landing slots at the British international airport.

In response to Branson's threat to withdraw flights from India, the Indian government had responded by saying that it would want the national carrier to get proper slots at the Heathrow to enable it to increase its flights to London.

"We want proper landing slots at Heathrow. We also want to increase our flights to the UK. We would like to have as many number of flights to that country as their airlines fly here. Bilaterals (air traffic rights) cannot be a one-sided affair," Civil Aviation Minister Shanawaz Hussain said on June 24.

Branson had threatened to withdraw his Airlines operations out of India if it was not granted 14 flights a week from Delhi to Mumbai.

"We will be extremely sorry to pull out but our current twice weekly service between London and Delhi is not commercially viable and we have lost many million Pounds during the last two years," Branson told reporters on June 24.

PTI