No impact of missing flight on India operations, says AirAsia

The disappearance of Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia's flight from Indonesia's Surabaya to Singapore early Sunday has not affected its Indian operations, an airline spokesperson said.

"Our operations are normal. No impact of the missing aircraft on our flights in India and we don't have cancellations," AirAsia India spokesperson told IANS in Bengaluru.

As a joint venture with Tata Sons and Telstra Tradeplace, AirAsia began its low-cost operations in India from here June 12 with a maiden flight to Panjim.

"We regret to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore lost contact with air traffic control at 07.24 a.m. (Surabaya local time) after it took off from Juanda international airport at 05.35 a m," the company said in a statement.

The Airbus A320-200, with 155 passengers on board - 138 adults 16 children and one infant - had two pilots and five cabin crew.

Though majority (156) of the passengers are nationals from Indonesia, the aircraft was also carrying three nationals from South Korea, and one each national from Singapore, Malaysia and France.

"There were no passengers or nationals from India," the spokesperson added.

In the $30-million Indian joint venture, AirAsia Berhad of Malaysia has majority stake (49 percent equity) while Tata Sons holds 30 per cent and Telstra Tradeplace the remaining 21 per cent.

The airline operates daily flights from seven cities across the country, including Chandigarh, Chennai, Jaipur, Kochi, Panjim and Pune.