Hyderabad's new Shamsabad airport becoming a favoured destination for Gulf carriers

Hyderabad: With a world-class international airport already operational and passenger traffic on the Gulf route growing by the day, Emirates, has decided to increase flight frequency to the city. Flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Emirates, said it plans to increase frequency of its Dubai-Hyderabad flights to thrice a day over the next six months.

It already operates 11 flights a week.

According to officials of the Shamsabad-located Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Emirates will operate three flights a day - morning, evening and night. The carrier had first launched operations to the city, with a daily flight from Dubai to Hyderabad, on 1 July 2001.

RGIA completed two months of commercial operations on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Gulf Air, the flag carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, will introduce daily flights to the new airport from 1 July with A320 aircraft. RGIA officials have indicated that Gulf has already requested India's civil aviation ministry to allow them to operate two flights daily.

RGIA is also in talks with Abu Dhabi's  Etihad Airways for operating Abu Dhabi-Hyderabad flights.

Various international airlines have also shown an interest in making Hyderabad their hub for both cargo and passenger operations and talks are currently underway.

Currently, 11 international and 10 domestic airlines are linking over 35 destinations from the RGIA.

Developed over 5,400 acres, the airport has the longest runway (4,260 meters) in South East Asia.

The airport, which will handle 12 million passengers per annum in the first phase, is designed to have an ultimate capacity of 40 million passengers and one million tonnes of cargo per annum.