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Italian airline Eurofly will start the first direct commercial flights between Rome and New Delhi in 2007 to tap demand from a burgeoning class of globetrotting Indians, company officials said on Tuesday.

The company will fly 282 seat Airbus A330s between the two capitals three times a week each way from January 15, with tickets selling from INR20,000 (USD$450) during the launch period, Executive Vice President Armando Brunini told reporters.

«We are filling a gap,» he said. «Italy, we think traffic can grow, but it's quite stable. What we're really looking for is growth from the Indian market.»

The company estimated about 150,000 people fly between the two countries annually, about two-thirds of them Italians.

But the number of Indian tourists visiting Italy was growing by 30 percent annually, Eurofly said, and the introduction of direct flights was expected to add another 10 percentage points to that figure.

India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies, and the nation's growing middle class is increasingly able and willing to spend on luxuries such as long-haul holidays.

Eurofly expects the service to break even by the second year of operations, but Brunini would not make further performance or revenue predictions.

He said the main obstacle to growth would be convincing Indians to shake the habit of «doing Europe» in a dashed package tour around half of the continent, and instead focus on Italy as a destination in its own right.

(Reuters)