Cathay Pacific Airways today announced that it will significantly enhance its schedule to India beginning 29 February, with more flights added to its existing services to Delhi and Mumbai and the launch of a new destination, Chennai.

The enhanced services - a total of 20 new flights a week by early June - to one of the world's fastest-growing economies will serve to further boost Hong Kong's position as a leading international aviation hub.

Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Tony Tyler said: "We are very excited indeed about being able to boost our services to India - something we have been striving to do for decades. With our home in Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific is ideally positioned to act as the natural carrier of choice for passengers travelling to and from one of the world's fastest growing markets, India. The opportunities for Hong Kong as a leading international aviation hub are very clear."

Cathay Pacific's services to Mumbai and Delhi will both become a daily operation from 29 February with the addition of three more flights a week to each city. The extra flights to Mumbai will continue on to Dubai.

From the beginning of the summer schedule on 30 March, the airline will add a further three flights a week to Mumbai, taking the number of flights to the city to 10 a week. At the same time, another daily flight will be added to Delhi, making a total of 14 flights a week. And on 1 June Cathay Pacific will add Chennai, India's fourth-largest metropolitan city, to its network with four flights a week.

Details of the flight numbers and schedules for the services are still being finalised and will be published in due course.

Cathay Pacific began flying to India 25 years ago, launching a passenger service to Mumbai in January 1982. Delhi was added as a passenger destination in March 2001 and the airline also operates scheduled freighter flights to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.

In addition to the Cathay Pacific India enhancements, sister airline Dragonair will launch a daily flight to Bangalore, the country's information technology hub, on 1 May, using an A330-300 aircraft.