In a bid to provide a competitive package for destinations to India, Cyprus Airways is looking at tie-ups with private Indian airlines like Jet and Sahara, for flights to Colombo.

A strong player in the Europe-Gulf sector, the airways, which failed to secure an agreement for direct flights to India, wants to provide a competitive Dubai-Colombo-India package.

The airlines has launched its first flights to Colombo after having failed to conclude an agreement with India for direct flights to destinations there, vice chairman of Cyprus Airways Achilleas Kyprianou said.

"India wanted royalties for Air-India on the routes that we fly to India which we felt we cannot give without affecting our viability" he said, adding that Colombo did not pose any such problems.

"We are still negotiating with the Indian government and if we are given approval we would like to start flights to India," he said.

The agreement with Sri Lanka included a commitment to promote tourism to the island as Cyprus Airways had subsidiaries with strong interest in tourism, he said.

"We had also told Indian officials that we were committed to promote tourism to India from Europe and the Gulf."

Cyprus Airways wanted to cash in on the recent liberalisation policies of India opening up the South India-Colombo sector.

But as the Sri Lankan airways flying to southern Indian destinations were heavily loaded, Cyprus Airways wanted to explore tie-ups with other private carriers like Jet and Sahara.

"We are still keen on direct links to India as India has more tourist destinations", he said stressing that Cyprus Airways was a niche carrier and always had an interest in tourist traffic.

He said the twice-weekly Dubai-Colombo service, which originates in Larnaca, has proved a tremendous success with strong interest from the Gulf labour market and outbound tourism sector.

In addition, there has also been considerable interest from Cypriot tourists and European tour operators who wish to access Sri Lanka.