Austrian Airlines has resumed flights to Mumbai after suspending operations for about one and a half years. The airline has increased the total number of flights to 11 from India, which includes six from New Delhi and five from Mumbai. Earlier, there were five flights to New Delhi. The Austria-based airline, which is a member of the Lufthansa Passenger Airline Group, would be flight from Mumbai to Vienna providing connections to Europe and beyond.Austrian Airlines executive board member Andreas Bierwirth said, Our daily flights from New Delhi to Viennahave an average load factor of approximately 80% around the year. We also expect strong demand for our business class travel to Mumbai. Compared to last winter, we are significantly expanding our long-haul capacity from five to 11 flights per week. Austrian Airlines is not the only carrier which is expanding presence in the country. Global carriers like Air Asia, FlyDubai and Air Arabia have introduced services or plan to add new routes to India.
However, after 2008, many international carriers had either discontinued their operations or postponed expansion plans in India owing to a global economic downturn.In March 2009, Austrian Airlines suspended Mumbai operations. At that time, the airline was not a member the of the Lufthansa Passenger Airline Group. Two months later, Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways also withdrew its Mumbai-London link. In late 2009, when India’s economy started reviving faster than most others, even passengers started returning to air travel in large numbers, since then foreign carriers have sharpened their focus on India.