A leading West Midland travel management company has thrown its weight behind the campaign for direct flights from Birmingham International Airport to India.
Ian Currington, national account director of the Leamington-based Travel Management Group, said the market was "critical" to the region and business travelers would prefer a direct flight.
Currington said: "We would absolutely support the reintroduction or commencement of any new long haul service from Birmingham Airport.
"The Indian market is critical to the West Midlands given the large number of residents of Indian origin.
"From a business travel perspective, any direct route opens up improved links and investment opportunities.
"India is an important and growing business travel market to the area through links to manufacturing businesses and outsourcing to India."
Currently the Airport hosts several airlines which run indirect services to India. Among them are Air France KLM, Emirates and Lufthansa.
Birmingham City Council launched a campaign last October to win support for restoring a direct link between the city and the sub-continent.
The link was severed in 2008 when Air India switched its Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto service to go via London Heathrow.
Mike Whitby, leader of the city council, said there were several airlines which could operate a direct service, including three Indian carriers Air India, Kingfisher and Jet Airways.
He presented a petition with 20,000 signatures to the Indian government in Delhi earlier this month.
"I am now working with the Airport to give the Fly India campaign another push and gain even more support so that we can demonstrate, with little doubt, the overwhelming demand for direct flights between Birmingham and India.
"The potential economical, social and cultural benefits to be reaped if these flights were in place would be significant and would be a real demonstration of the natural links that exist between Birmingham, the Midlands and India," Whitby said.
Paul Kehoe, Birmingham Airport ceo, said: "I still find it incredible that although there are around 350,000 people of Indian origin living in the one hour catchment of the Airport, there hasn't been a direct flight to India since October 2008.
"To secure its slots at Heathrow, Air India sadly moved its Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto in 2008 to the capital.
"During its three years at Birmingham however, demand was never a problem. In fact, in the last year of operation alone it carried 100,000 people between Amritsar, Delhi, Birmingham and Toronto and its load factors were often more than 85% full."
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