Three CIS airlines to operate on Mumbai route

Mumbai airport operator MIAL on Monday said three new airlines, including Russia's Aeroflot and Ural Air, are expected to commence services to the financial capital in the coming months.

While the two carriers would connect Mumbai with Moscow, Kazakhstan's Air Astana would start services from Almaty.

"The introduction of new services to the the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region will see an increase in flights from three times a week to 18 a week in Summer 2020," the Mumbai International Airport Limited said in a statement.

Currently, the Mumbai airport connects to the CIS state of Uzbekistan through Tashkent the capital and the largest city in the country with three flights per week, it said.

Moscow-based Ural Air will be connecting Mumbai with the Russian capital from next month and will be operating four weekly flights on the route.

It will be followed by Kazakhstan's carrier Air Astana, which plans to launch four-times weekly services to the financial capital from capital airport Almaty, while Aeroflot is set to resume operations to the city with a daily flight, starting July 1, as per MIAL.

The second busiest airport in the country, Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) caters to over 48.8 million passengers and connects to 50 domestic and international destinations.