http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,20696108-2682,00.html#
Adelaide 'a priority' for Air India

GREG KELTON, STATE POLITICAL REPORTER
November 04, 2006 12:15am
AIR India is considering resuming flights to Australia and has told the State Government that Adelaide is a likely major destination.

Airline officials revealed the move yesterday during talks with Premier Mike Rann as his nine-day trade mission to India drew to a close.
Apart from Air India, which is about to merge with domestic carrier Indian Airlines, Mr Rann also had talks with another major Indian airline - Jet Airways.

Air India commercial director V.K. Verma told Mr Rann and SA trade officials that Australia was now "a very serious destination in our business plan".

"Adelaide is not unfamiliar to many Indians," Mr Verma said. "Australia is clearly very big on our canvas and Adelaide will be a very prominent city in our consideration."

He said a final decision on a resumption of flights to Australia was not likely until the middle of next year.

Mr Rann told the airline that for the year ended June, 2006, travel and tourism generated $4 billion worth of expenditure in SA.

He said the state attracted about two million interstate and international visitors and 17 million visitor nights.

"Of these, 345,700 were international visitors, an increase of 6 per cent from the previous year."

Mr Rann told Air India of the new Adelaide Airport and how the Government wanted to get more international flights into the new complex.

He said SA expected increased tourism from India over coming years as well as an influx of Indian students wanting to study at the four universities.

"For the year to June, 2006, there were 78,900 inbound Indian visitors to Australia," he said.

"Indian inbound tourism to Australia is predicted to grow at about 16 per cent from 2006 to 2015," Mr Rann said.