JEDDAH, 31 March 2004 — Air-India (A-I) has introduced three more nonstop flights to India in its new summer schedule.

The national carrier has added its third nonstop flight each to Hyderabad, Lucknow and Bombay, which will be operated from April 2, 3 and 4, respectively. With these A-I becomes the “only international airline in the Kingdom” to fly nonstop 14 times a week from Jeddah — four to Calicut, three each to Hyderabad, Lucknow and Bombay, and one to Madras. Its flights to Lucknow are operated via New Delhi.

The airline has informed travel agents to advise passengers that each baggage for check-in should not exceed 32 kg. If a baggage is found exceeding 32 kg, it will not be accepted at the airport.

“One can take any amount of load and pay the excess baggage fare, but each one should not be more than 32 kg,” the airline’s Western Province Manager S.M. Mazharullah told a press conference yesterday. The decision is in keeping with the generally accepted norm in the aviation industry. Aside from weekly 14 flights from Jeddah, A-I operates nine more from Riyadh and eight from Dammam.

Mazharullah, who has completed his term exceeding three and a half years, has been transferred to head the office in Hyderabad whose current incumbent Ashok Kumar will be here in mid-April to replace him.

A-I operated six flights a week to Bombay and Delhi with connections to various Indian cities when he took charge of the Jeddah office in mid-November 2000. The first nonstop flights were introduced to Hyderabad on May 16, 2001, and a week later to Calicut. Two more nonstop flights to Calicut were added on April 4, 2002 and the fourth one in 2003.

Mazharullah said he found his assignment here fulfilling as he handled four Haj operations for his airline. “I found this station quite challenging and professionally fruitful,” he added.