Delhi : Tata owned airline Air India announced that it will start direct flights from Delhi to Thailand's Phuket from December 15, 2023. The airline also said that services to the island city is a part of the airline's expansion plans in the Far East and South East Asia.

Air India will operate A320neo on the route, offering 162 seats of which 150 are economy and 12 business class. The airline also informed that it will be initially operating four weekly flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Speaking on the development, Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial and Transfor-mation Officer, Air India, said, "We are delighted to welcome Phuket into our network and will continue to expand ourconnectivity and enhance frequency on domestic and international sectors providing more flexibility of choice to our customers and contributing to the growth in the aviation sector."

The flight AI 378 will depart Delhi at 0110 hrs to arrive in Phuket the same day at 0710 hrs. The return flight AI 379 will take off from Phuket at 0810 hrs and land in Delhi at 1050 hrs (all local times)

Furthermore, the airline said it plans to launch daily operations in January 2024.

With daily nonstop flights from Delhi and Mumbai and six flights a week from Kolkata, Air India currently offers a total of 26 flights to Bangkok per week.

The Indian airline has an interline partnership with Bangkok Airways through which it provides convenient connections via Bangkok to and from 10 popular destinations in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

Passengers can book flights to Phuket currently via all channels, including Air India's website, mobile app, and through offline/online travel agents.