Special IA cricket service

Indian Airlines announced that it would be flying the Indian cricket team to Pakistan on March 10 for the proposed Indo-Pak cricket series.

The state-owned carrier has also chalked out a special package for cricket enthusiasts to enable them to fly to Pakistan at discounted fares.

A meeting of the officials of the external affairs ministry and Indian Airlines will be held here tomorrow to discuss the issue of increasing the number of flights to Pakistan.

"We are holding a meeting with the officials of the external affairs ministry tomorrow so that we can work on the issue of increasing the number of flights," Indian Airlines chairman-cum-managing director Sunil Arora told reporters.

On the issue of re-starting the Mumbai-Karachi flight, Arora said the Mumbai-Karachi flights were likely to resume after the Haj chartered flights were over.

About the under-occupancy of IA flights to Lahore, Arora expressed optimism that the issue would be sorted in two-three months as the visa procedure took quite some time.

Arora said the March 10 special flight carrying the cricketers would also be open for the public. The plane carrying the cricketers would leave from Delhi at 1300 hours for Lahore and return here at 1545 hours.

Indian Airlines has also tied up with the Holiday Inn hotel in Lahore for a special package including discounted airfare, Arora said, adding this would be valid till April 30.

A three-night-four-day package to Lahore will be available from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Lucknow and Jaipur.

Sight-seeing visits would also be arranged under the package, which would come in effect on March 1 and continue till April 30, Arora said, adding that there would be a 10 per cent discount on the airfare.