Air-India has plans to operate twice-weekly services to China effective from December 2003, government told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The government is working out the modalities in this regard, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Rajiv Pratap Rudy said in a written reply.

He said from December 2003, Air-India also proposes to increase the frequencies to Chicago via Frankfurt by introducing three frequencies -- Mumbai/Frankfurt/Chicago and vice versa.

Two of the Chicago flights are proposed to be extended to Bangalore, making it a direct United States/Bangalore flight, he said.

The United Kingdom, France, Egypt, South Africa, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Kyrghyzstan, Hong Kong, Singapore and China are among the major countries which have requested for permission to operate more services to India as well as access to more Indian airports, Rudy said.

He said Air-India also plans to acquire new aircraft to phase out the older ones, rationalise its fleet and expand capacity, but added that no final proposal has been received from Air-India for the government's approval.