File photo of Kempegowda International Airport

BENGALURU: Direct flights between Kempegowda International Airport ( KIA ), Bengaluru and several international destinations are expected to begin this year, including one to the US West Coast in October, which will be operated by American Airlines.

Several new services will begin operations next month. Japan Airlines has announced it will operate a daily direct flight between Bengaluru and Narita, Tokyo from March 29, 2020. This will make Bengaluru the second South Indian city after Chennai to have a direct flight to Tokyo.

On March 29, IndiGo is also expected to kick off another direct service between Bengaluru and Jeddah, which is currently serviced by two non-stop flights — IndiGo and Saudia. On March 16, IndiGo will operate an additional daily direct flight between Bengaluru and Doha, a route currently being serviced by Qatar Airways and IndiGo.

Lufthansa has announced that in April 2020, it will launch a direct service between Bengaluru and Munich (five times a week) using the A350-900 aircraft.

Japan Airlines had earlier hoped its Bengaluru-Tokyo flight will offer travellers from Bengaluru connectivity to the US West Coast and Canada via Tokyo. The announcement from American Airlines has, however, changed things.

American Airlines recently announced Bengaluru’s first direct connecting flight to the West Coast. The airline plans to operate a 285-seater Boeing 787-9 aircraft on the route. With this, passengers from Bengaluru can reach the destination in 16 hours. It’s expected to provide seamless travel options to those employed with tech firms in Bengaluru and Seattle.

Virgin Atlantic, as part of its Heathrow expansion plans, has identified Bengaluru-Heathrow as a new route, on which it will start flights after 2020.

Several new direct flights were launched last year from KIA to destinations like Addis Ababa by Ethiopian Airlines and Amsterdam by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

