Emirates to start Kolkata, Bangalore flights

Dubai-based airline Emirates plans to start flights from Kolkata and Bangalore to Dubai in 2006. "Emirates is all set to foray into North East destinations. The airline will launch six non-stop direct flights per week between Dubai and Kolkata from March 2006," said Nabil Sultan, senior vice-president (commercial operations - West Asia & Indian Ocean), Emirates.

The carrier will operate an Airbus A330-200 aircraft on the route in three and two-class configurations.

With the commencement of the Kolkata service, Emirates' Indian network will go up to seven cities, being served by 63 flights a week.

"On October 29, the airline will launch eight flights a week from Bangalore. Recently, Emirates had launched services from Thiruvananthapuram and enhanced flights from Kochi and Chennai," Sultan said.

He pointed that the airline was keen on operating from Tier-II cities such as Ahmedabad, Pune and Goa.

Emirates will also invest into properties in the Mumbai suburbs so as to enhance its call centre operations. The airline plans to increase its headcount for its international call centre.

"We have identified some properties at Malad in the Mumbai suburbs. Our aim is to increase the seat capacity to 500 by 2010, from the current 170 seats. This will give us economies of scale and centralised operations," said Sultan.

Replying to a question, Sultan said that the airline was exploring the idea of setting up an engineering and repair services in India.

"We have not finalised on creating an engineering or overhauling services in India as Dubai is our hub. But, we will soon take decision on this after evaluating various possibilities," he added.