New Delhi, July 18 The newly merged state-owned airline Air India would offer seamless through check-in facility for passengers travelling from Delhi, Mumbai and John F. Kennedy Airport in New York from August 1 and extend the facility to Chennai and Kolkata airports from October 1 this year.

In effect, this would mean that passengers would be able to complete check-in of their bags and receive a boarding card for their final destination at any of the five airports. This emerged at a review meeting on the merger of Air India and Indian chaired by the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, here.

The meeting also decided that the Regional Jets being leased would be used for full service operations and not low-cost operations being planned by the airline. Initially, the airline plans to lease four Regional Jets that would be mainly used to operate flights in the north-eastern part of the country.