India's flag carrier Air-India Monday said it will launch three flights a week from Delhi to Birmingham and Toronto via Amritsar starting May 15, Indo-Asian News Service reported.

The latest service marks commencement of services to Toronto after eight years, the airlines said in a statement here.

The flights will be operated on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

The Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto route will provide the people of Punjab "direct and convenient services to Birmingham, the heartland of industrial and economic activity in the UK, and to Toronto, the financial capital of Canada", the airline said.

Between January 1982 and October 1984, Air-India had operated flights on the Mumbai-Delhi-Amritsar-Moscow-Birmingham route.

The introduction of the Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto service will take the number of flights operated by Air-India to Britain from 18 to 21 a week. The national carrier also plans to add three more flights -- on the Delhi-Dhaka-Kolkata-London sectorfrom June 18 - to increase its flights to Britain to 24 a week.

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2005)