Now travel direct to Milan from Delhi

Italian carrier Air Italy Friday commenced direct services to Milan from the national capital and has high expectations from the Indian market as it expands in Asia, a senior official said.

Air Italy's Chief Operating Officer Rossen Dimitrov said the airline is to enter into an interline agreement with full-service carrier Vistara.

Earlier, the official had erroneously mentioned it was to enter into a codeshare arrangement.

An interline agreement refers to a pact to issue and accept tickets for flights that are operated by the partner airline.

The first flight of Air Italy to Milan, operated with an A330-200 aircraft, took off from here in the morning.

The Italian airline would operate three weekly flights from the national capital to Milan and starting December 14, there would be thrice-a-week direct services to Milan from Mumbai.

"The launch of our India-Italy sector represents another major step forward for Air Italy and reinforces our commitment to our network expansion plans in Asia," Dimitrov said at a press briefing here.

He noted that India is a great market and there are "very high expectations" as there is an opportunity to grow.

The flight to Milan would operate on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. From Milan, the flight would be on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

Delhi is the fourth intercontinental route for Air Italy this year after flights to New York, Miami and Bangkok.

Air Italy is 51 per cent owned by AQA Holding and the remaining 49 per cent is with Qatar Airways.