Ahmedabad

Air India’s first direct daily flight service between Ahmedabad and London will take off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport here early tomorrow, airline officials said today.

The announcement comes a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced during his London visit that there will be a direct flight between Ahmedabad and London.

“This will be a daily service from tomorrow. The inaugural flight ‘AI-131’ will take off from Ahmedabad at 4.30 am tomorrow and will arrive at Mumbai at 5.45am. From Mumbai it will take off at 7.05 am and land at London at 11.30 am on that day,” Air India Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, Anil Mehta said.

The flight will operate with a B-787 Dreamliner aircraft on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai-London-Mumbai-Ahmedabad route, he said adding that the passengers will not need to change the flight at Mumbai during the halt, he added.

On the return leg, flight AI-130 will leave London at 13.30 pm, arrive at Mumbai at 4.00 am the next day, and depart from Mumbai at 5.30 am to land in Ahmedabad at 6.45 am, Mehta added.

“The entire journey would last around eight hours.

Though there is a halt at Mumbai for one hour, passengers need not alight for security checks or to change aircraft. At present, 70 per cent of the seats are booked for the inaugural flight from here tomorrow, which is a good sign,” Mehta said.

According to another top official of Air India, return fare for the economy class is around Rs 45,000, while people wanting to travel in executive class need to shell out Rs 1.5 lakh for two-way journey.

“The Dreamliner aircraft is very spacious with 238 seats in economy class and 18 seats in executive class. We are introducing this direct flight service after two years of extensive research and deliberations. We are confident of getting very good response,” said Mukesh Bhatia, General Manager-Commercial (Western Region).

This flight service is “direct” and not “non-stop” at present, Mehta announced that it will become non-stop in the mid of January.

“The halt at Mumbai will not be there in near future, as we are planning to turn the service into a non-stop one during the mid of January,” announced Mehta.

This direct flight service between the two cities is being resumed after a gap of almost seven years, as it was stopped in 2008 after it proved “commercially unviable”.

According to an official statement of the airline, this flight will be a boon to the 1.5 million-strong Indian diaspora living in Britain, catering to the strong demand of more than six lakh Indians from Gujarat.

PTI