New Delhi: Recovering slowly from several adverse factors afflicting the civil aviation sector worldwide, Air India (AI) is all set to spread its wings and cross the Great Wall of China to fly to Shanghai from next month.

Air India has decided to fly twice weekly to the China's commercial capital from December 11.

AI's maiden flight to Shanghai from Mumbai would fly via Delhi and Bangkok.

The airline has also decided to increase frequency of flights to Frankfurt and Chicago from December, which would form part of its winter schedule.

Celebrating commencement of the airline's new operations at a function in New Delhi last night (Nov 2), Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that Air India had almost doubled the capacity to the United States in the last one year.

Observing that he was happy to share the pride of "Maharaja", Rudy said that the Government was keen on creating world-class airports at Mumbai and Delhi and committed to see that Air India became a world-class airline.

Civil Aviation Secretary K Roy Paul said though there was apprehension this year because of factors like Iraq war, the first half yearly results showed it was a "healthy company. We are certain to make significant profit this year".

Air India had registered an impressive profit of Rs 133.85 crore in the financial year ending March 31, 2003.

AI managing director Sunil Arora said the company was making constant effort to expand its activities by 10 per cent every year.

PTI