Just thought I'd share this with you after noticing some unexpected aircraft at MAA airport...

Air Seychelles has been flying for the past few months to Chennai once a week. The aircraft, a 762 continues on to Singapore but HM does not sell or have traffic rights on MAA-SIN-MAA.
HM 062 departs SEZ at 1940 on a Monday, to arrive MAA at 0145 early Tuesday morning - Published Flying Time is 4h35
HM063 departs MAA at 2130 on a Wednesday night, to arrive SEZ at 0025 +1.

At 56k INR for a biz class RT I am quite tempted to head out for a week long vacation - now to find the time....

Also, effective 3 Jun, ET starts flying daily to MAA as an extension of its BOM flight. Again, no local traffic rights - but MAA-ADD Dep 0200 Arr 0710 with a mix of 757 and 763. ADD-MAA Dep 2315, Arr 1000 +1

Thought these less publicized new flights may be of interest...

thanks for the info....inr 56k seems like a great deal....tempted to check it out....

Fascinating..! A mention should also be made of Air Mauritius which seem to fly couple of times a week to MAA from MRU and then continues to BLR. This service is in existance from some time time, but hardly gets any coverage (or noticed). They seems not to have traffic rights for MAA-BLR-MAA sector.

I wonder what happened to BLR-CTU operated by Air China?

Thanks for the updates.
Interesting to note...

I almost want to wish LH to offer a daytime departure to MUC/FRA. I am tired of that 01:50AM LH departures.

Yes indeed MK has been operating to MAA for a while - again once a week - been around for years now. The more recent change was a triangular service - it used to be a MAA-MRU-MAA, but not its a MRU-BLR-MAA-MRU (so on the inbound there is a painful layover in BLR).



Still on - it operates BLR-CTU-PVG - CA 426 operates BLR-CTU-PVG on 2,4,7 early am arriving around noon into PVG.
PVG-CTU-BLR departs PVG at 5pm, arrives BLR at 0020 on 1,3,6.
It's a A319 aircraft - can't be too comfortable for such a long journey.

Agreed! DEL-MUC is a day time flight...

But demand for day flights is less - BA 198 doesn't do as well from BOM as BA138 (199 justifies the flight)...

BA even dropped the summer twice weekly BA1036 that left at 8am from MAA - used to love doing a MAA-LHR-EWR on that - great connection at LHR with enough time to enjoy the lounge, a full night's sleep at home before leaving etc - now all flights depart at the godforsaken hour of 0531...

The full night sleep is what I miss with all these early departure hours.

Worse are the 3-5AM departures...you can neither sleep at home, nor on the plane.

If you are planning a vacation, do so before June this year. Unfortunately HM is dropping its Chennai service and going non-stop to Singapore.

Link to the press release, from the Air Seychelles website -

http://www.airseychelles.com/en/news/index.php?aid=49

This is news to me, another Star option. Do you have a link for this? ET.com does not show Chennai.

No link, but my TA has it reflecting on his Amadeus system and it is open for sale..

thats a darn shame...
thanks for the update and warning

sorry for the multiple posts - just got this e-mail from my TA

TN4JUNMAAADD/AET
** AMADEUS TIMETABLE - TN 04JUN11 11JUN11
1 ET 611 245 MAA ADD 2 0200 0710 1 03JUN11 14JUN11 763 7:40
2 ET 611 1367 MAA ADD 2 0200 0710 1 04JUN11 15JUN11 757 7:40

TN4JUNADDMAA/AET
** AMADEUS TIMETABLE - TN 04JUN11 11JUN11
1 ET 610 237 ADD 2 MAA 2315 1000+1 1 05JUN11 14JUN11 763 8:15
2 ET 610 1456 ADD 2 MAA 2315 1000+1 1 02JUN11 13JUN11 757 8:15

And lastly

** ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES - AN ** ADD ADDIS ABABA.ET SU 05JUN
0200
1 ET 611 C9 J9 D9 Y9 G9 S9 B9 /MAA ADD 2 0200 0710 E1/757 7:40
M9 K9 L9 V9 H7 U7 Q7 T7 W7 E7 O7

Yes, true. Although ET has not yet officially joined (where one can earn miles, on partners, etc). Thankfully, ET has been officially invited.

I must say, i have no clue how good or bad is ET.

I am wondering when AI will (if) ever complete its integration with Star.

Aren't we all? It would be a damn shame if ET can integrate faster than we can - Air China already beat us big time (which is understandable - the Chinese do what they set their mind too) - but ET integrating before us... that's bad

Agreed. It will be pathetic if ET gets there before AI.

I actually like to fly AI domestic. And I really like that AI has those daytime MAA-SIN-MAA flights. However, it will give me more reason to fly them if only they ever integrate with Star.