UK's Stansted airport courts Asian carriers, including Kingfisher

London: Stansted Airport, the third busiest airport in the London area after Heathrow and Gatwick, may be close to announcing new services to India and China, apart from aggressively targeting services to the European continent.

The airport, which already serves a little over 160 European destinations, is actively engaged in wooing Asian carriers to operate services from here. According to reports, Kingfisher Airlines is one Indian carrier that is pursuing talks with Stansted's business development authorities.

Kingfisher, like all Indian startups, will however have to get around legislation at home that bars airlines less than five years old from starting international operations.

UK journal Business Weekly quotes Nick Barton, business development and planning director for the airport, as saying: "We are very encouraged by progress in our advanced talks with Chinese and Indian airlines. These things don't convert overnight but we are well aware of demand in these tiger economies and are moving as fast as we can.

"We are aware that we have slots we can fill for incoming aircraft from Asia and the Far East in quiet times and can therefore comfortably accommodate flights from India, China, Malaysia and Dubai among other areas.

"Four major carriers from Asia are talking to us but they have to get their fleets right."

The airport is owned and operated by BAA.