Beijing: Air India, which had lost the discerning Hong Kong market to Cathay Pacific during the temporary withdrawal of its flights to the island during the SARS (Severe Acute respiratory Syndrome) epidemic breakout has staged a comeback ahead of an important milestone, a senior company official has said.

"We have retrieved the lost market in Hong Kong and our flights out of and into Hong Kong are generally full," Air-India's regional director for Far East, Southeast Asia and Australasia, V J Casshyap said.

The outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore had hit the airline industry and travel trade during April to July/August 2003.

Air India was also badly affected by poor traffic in the aftermath of SARS outbreak in parts of the Asia- Pacific region, which led to a temporary suspension of its flights to and from Hong Kong from April.

This allowed Hong Kong's local airline, Cathay Pacific to grab all passenger traffic to and from India to the major Asian metropolis, Casshyap, who is based in Hong Kong, said.

"Now that Air India has partially restored its flights to Hong Kong and due to our aggressive marketing strategy, we have regained the lost ground and made impressive strides in Hong Kong as well as in the Asia-Pacific region," Casshyap said.

This turnaround has come about at an opportune time for India's national flag carrier as Air India is going to celebrate the golden jubilee of the first AI flight to Hong Kong on August 14, 1954, he said.

PTI