Air India has indicated it still wants to fly to either Melbourne or Sydney but is still months from any decision.
The development, reported in the Financial Review, is positive news for Sydney which had seemed to have lost out to Victoria when flights were slated to begin in November 2010.
Those services fell through following issues with the Indian Civil Aviation Authority and concerns about the profitability of the route.
More recent speculation that flights were to begin last October also came to nothing.
Quoted in today’s AFR, Air India assistant general manager of corporate communications, G Prasada Rao, said the government-owned carrier planned to operate direct flights to Australia and indicated that Sydney was back in the mix.
The airline has “yet to decide” where to fly, he said. “When the committee finalises we will be able to let you know.”
But such has been the nature of the on-off saga, no one will be particularly hopeful that flights will begin any time soon.
Tridip Kumar Palit, the airline’s executive director, planning and international relations, told Travel Today back in December 2010 that the numbers did not stack up in the current climate.
“There is tremendous traffic potential, there’s no doubt about that, the issue is around profitability,” he said.
