Kingfisher to launch Mumbai London daily service

Kingfisher Airlines will start operations to its second international destination with the launch of daily direct flights from Mumbai to London from January 5, 2009.

A330 image is my copyright
According to the release issued by the airline, a brand new Airbus A330-200 will be deployed for the route. Kingfisher Airlines commenced its international operations on September 3, 2008 with its Bangalore-London service.

The launch of the Mumbai-London is a result of Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) granting the airline permission on Tuesday to operate on eight international routes namely: Mumbai-London, Mumbai-Hong Kong, Mumbai-Singapore, Chennai-Colombo, Kolkata-Dhaka, Kolkata-Chittagong, Bangalore-Bangkok and Mumbai-Bangkok.

The service will compete head-on with the daily service of Jet Airways, Kingfisher's recent alliance partner. The impact of this service remains to be seen. Will it result in the recently formed alliance crumbling ?

I urge Dr. Mallya and his team to offer more services ex-Bangalore, which is, after all, the home of the airline.