INDIA will become British Airways’ second-biggest market behind the United States this year, after the launch of 16 new services a week direct from Heathrow to Indian cities.

British Airways (BA), which launched its first television advertising in the sub-continent this week, expects to carry 750,000 passengers between the UK and India this year, and more than a million next year, when flights increase to 42.

“India is a very important market for us and one we are strongly committed to,” Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA, said yesterday on the arrival of BA’s inaugural flight to Bangalore. “In just three years, we will have more than doubled our presence here. The potential of the market here is very significant.”

The airline, like many British companies, wants to benefit from India’s rapidly growing economy, which is expanding at 7 to 8 per cent a year, and particularly its burgeoning middle class. Of India’s 1.1 billion people, 200 million are now considered to be middle class. About half that number are significant spenders on air travel and domestic goods and services.

BA now flies to Bangalore, heart of southern India’s booming IT and pharmaceutical industries, five times a week after the British and Indian Governments struck a bilateral agreement to open up aviation markets between their countries. Further liberalisation of the aviation market between Britain and India is expected, leading to more direct flights between London and the sub-continent and forcing down fares.

Previously BA had only 19 direct services a week to Indian cities and 60 per cent of travellers were forced to fly through a third country, either in the Middle East or continental Europe.

Mr Walsh, speaking in Bangalore yesterday, said that BA was looking to start flights to Hyderabad and Cochin. He also confirmed that BA was looking to sign a pact with Air Sahara, a local domestic carrier owned by the Sahara Group construction and retail conglomerate. Air Sahara has a fifth of the domestic market and serves 30 cities with more than a million inhabitants.

BA and Air Sahara are discussing code-sharing and common frequent flyer schemes, in order to drive passenger growth from India’s rapidly growing smaller cities to the big hubs of Bombay, Madras, Delhi and Bangalore. Talks over whether Air Sahara may join the One World partnership alongside BA, Qantas, American Airlines and Iberia are taking place separately.

BA also said that it had no plan to buy Airbus’s new A380 superjumbo aircraft. Martin George, BA’s commercial director, said: “Right now, we don’t see an immediate fit with our fleet because of the complexity that it brings in terms of training new crew and other issues.” BA has said it could be interested in buying Boeing’s stretch 747, the 747-400 advanced, but there is no pressing reason for it to invest in new aircraft. It has 57 relatively new 747-400 jumbos.

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