I second that. I flew with Uzbekistan Airways recently form New York to Amritsar. I loved not having to undergo the agony of travelling from Delhi to Amritsar, my hometown. Having said that, Uzbekistan Airways' service was awful. The stop over at Tashkent was tooo long and the facilities there (bathrooms, restaurant) was a joke.
 
I really wish more airlines would fly from the NYC/NJ area to Amritsar. Not having to waste the time and hassles of the Delhi-Amritsar is priceless.

Contrary to what majority of other participants have said, Amritsar Airport offers some excellent service.  In its current operations of international flights, the airport is still new and under construction.  It is improving all the time.  I have visited this airport many times since 1996 and have seen improvements every time.  I passionately believe that jointly (we the punjabi passengers by using and Airport Authority by working on improving), we will shortly bring Amritsar Airport to leage of good international airports.
A well wisher
Jatinder  

waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ki fateh!
 
I heard alot of really disturbing things about the amritsar airport, but the thing is, the delhi airport is similar... they dont respect anyone there either, they have these women in the washrooms that ask for money to use the washroom, i mean wut is that? u cant charge me for using the washroom ...pluz the washrooms are so dirty like they have never been cleaned so i didnt even use them i walked in and walked rite back out, and she still was asking me for money and when i told her i didnt have any she wanted my watch and i was like forget it u have a job, dont beg for money ... ( well thats how it was when i went in 98 ).  Most of the men working there in security as well are all perverts.  Im coming to india in jan and my masi is telling me not to go to the amritsar airport because they misplaced her bags and took hours to find it.  I suggest if u are a women dont ever travel alone, that is why im bring my dad with me, to avoid harrassment. well thas jus my opinion anyways, hope no one got offended... bhul chuk maaf karo ..waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ki fateh!

Complaining is easy. Doing something about it is difficult. We in BOPIO appreciate the fact that India is a poor country When ever there is a shortage there is bound bound to be a black market and the way to deal with it is to increase supply. The Indian Government has at last invited NRI and PIO to partipate in the development of India. Let us do that. Come to a meeting of BOPIO at at the House Commons on the 13 th December {see details on their Website: www.Bopionews. co.uk
 
Further I find rather offensive to describe people trying to make a living in difficult conditions as bearded etc.

Check out Tara Airlines for developments on a direct flght from Luton to Amritsar and a copy of the prospecturs.
 

 
Website is http://www.taraairlines.net/

My sister-in-law went out via Midland Airways to ATQ in mid December 04, due to technical fault they spent a day at BHX (along with 18mth daughter) with no accomadation provided.
 
On her return trip similar delays and also there was no milk aboard for any travelling infants, due to tech. fault, they "hired" a smaller aircraft which in turn had to stop for fuel during a "direct flight" which took nearly 13hrs to finally arrive back at BHX - disgusting.
 
Me, my wife and our daughter (2) are about to make the same trip for a wedding and I'm trying to get more info from Midland Airways today regarding their services - waiting for a reply - will keep u updated
 
Binder

Air India Now seeks Birmingham Connection
 
NEW DELHI: In a bid to cater to the ethnic Indian population in the UK and Canada, the Air-India Maharajah is all set to launch new flights to Birmingham and link it onward to Toronto. Birmingham will be the national carrier’s first stop in the UK outside London.  
 
The onward link to Toronto is aimed at the growing Indian population in Canada. Since a large chunk of the Indian population in Canada as well as London originates from northern India, the Birmingham-Toronto flight would originate from Amritsar, instead of the usual stops of Delhi or Mumbai.  
 
The Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto flight would be launched from May ’05, said VK Verma, commercial director of Air-India. The new service would be operated with Boeing B777 aircraft three times a week, he added.  
 
Air-India is leasing three B777s which were being used by United Airlines. Efforts are on to lease a number of other aircraft, including B747-400s which would be used to expand capacity during ’05.  
 
Initially, A-I considered launching flights to Manchester to cater to ethnic Indian population. However, the airline has zeroed in on Birmingham in view of the changes in Indian population profile in the UK.  
 
There is a strong demand for Birmingham-Toronto connectivity as a sizeable population of the Indian population living in the UK and Canada have links with each other.  
 
Since obtaining slots at London for flights connecting onward to north America is difficult, the Maharajah has moved over to Birmingham. The costs would also be lower at Birmingham as compared to London’s Heathrow airport, it is felt.  
 
Air-India is also planning ‘scissors operation’ over Frankfurt to give an edge to its increasing connections to the US. According to current plans, the ‘scissors operation’ would involve convergence of the Delhi-Frankfurt-Los Angeles and Mumbai-Frankfurt-Chicago at the German city.  
 
The departure of these flights from Frankfurt would be tuned in such a way that both Delhi and Mumbai would get linked to Los Angeles and Chicago.  
 
For example, a passenger travelling on the Delhi flight destined for Los Angeles could switch over to the Chicago flight. Similarly, a passenger on the Los Angeles-Delhi connection could switch over to the Mumbai flight at Frankfurt.  
 
The ‘scissors operation’ over Frankfurt would give a lot of synergy to Air-India’s connections to the four cities concerned, Mr Verma said.  
 
The airline managed is expecting at least 20% growth in ’05 over and above the 30% achieved during ’04, he added.  
 
Passengers loads are good despite strong capacity addition during the current year. The Air-India fleet will have more than 40 aircraft during ’05, Mr Verma said. The airline now operates 36 aircraft out of which 18 are on lease.  
 
The company is also planning to acquire 50 wide-bodied aircraft and is finalising purchase of 18 B737-800s for its low-cost subsidiary, Air-India Express.  
 
 
India Times Dec 2004
............................................................  
 
 

Great news  lets hope other International airlines will follow too. Well done air India.

Online booking system launched for flights from Birmingham to Amritsar on www.amritsartravel.com

Dear  Veerjee, I am sorry to hear about your experience with Midland Airways. As you may be aware, we have set up Amritsar Travel www.amritsartravel.com as an online, competitive and quality flight booking service.  However based on feedback we have received such as yours, we decided not to include Midland Airways in our Travel Portal.
 
We hope you manage to get to your family wedding on time although you are hopefully airborne by now!

I've just checked out Air India's new flights to Canada and Birmingham from Amritsar and they are on a thrice-weekly flight basis on wednesday, friday and sunday.  
These new flights start on the 15 May 2005.
 
Only check weekly timetable AFTER 15 MAY 2005 only Amritsar Delhi/Delhi Amritsar legs only.
 
www.airindia.com

British Airways may have flights to Amritsar
 
Britain will try to explore the possibility of bringing Amritsar on the air service of British Airways,” says Mr Surinder Singla, Finance and Planning Minister of Punjab after his 45-minute meeting with the Foreign Secretary of Britain, Mr Jack Straw, here this morning.
 
“We discussed various things, including possibility of British investment in Punjab. Mr Straw promised to send a food processing company team to Punjab. He also agreed to consider sympathetically starting of a few more visa application collection centres in Punjab, especially in the Malwa belt (Bathinda),” said Mr Singla.
 
Mr Singla maintained that Mr Straw was also open to outsourcing by British companies in Punjab because of the strong links the two communities had because of the strong presence of Punjabi community in Britain.
 
Later, when Mr Straw met Mr Parminder Singh, General Secretary, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, he enquired about the Ajnala byelection. “He asked me about the chances of Congress in the election, I told him that the Congress will win hands down,” said Mr Parminder Singh.
 
Tribune India
17th February 2005
 
 

It will be a dream come true for the NRIs of the punjab, in England,USA and Canada if British airways starts a direct flight between "Heathrow" and Amritsar.
Especially as BA has regular connections to these countries from "Heathrow". As the old saying goes , many targets with one arrow and judging from the "Delhi" BA flights (about 75%) pessengers are NRIs"punjabis".
 
Lets just hope the staff at Amritsar will have respect to the people that will travel there as they  will be bringing in a much needed "Revnue" to the state of Punjab.

i have read a lot of people's points of view about Amritsar Airport, but i seem to think it is not the airport but the flights that are at fault........i have gone to drop- off my Granny just few weeks ago only to find out there are more than 30 people who have tickets and waiting to board the flight....but can't because the agents have overbooked......how is that possible??????? i ask myself in this day and age of computers..........in the past four weeks i have not heard about a single flight going on time........
Coming back is a nightmare!!!!!!!!!!! My auntie had waited at the airport for more than 6 hours only to find out the plane (MIDLAND AIRWAYS) was delayed for 24 hours, the second day she got there again there was no plane......she was left stranded......now she is having to make her way to Delhi and travelling by Virgin Airways, paid for a one way ticket to arrive back to UK.
I think the company shoud be sued as my auntie could loose her job because of the delay.........and the worst thing is that it is not just my auntie who had this experience more than 300 passengers were left stranded just on Saturday and this is only 1 case that i have written about....................every week this happens and will keep happening if we do not complain.

i booked 8 business class seats on Midland Airways and travelled on 11/02/05, the flight was supposed to leave at 11pm from Birmingham but didn't leave until 3am, this isn't is a problem at Birmingham Airport because the facility are very good and food/drink are available, the ser4vice on the flight was awful for business class i would hate to see how economy were treated but we had to forever call the the flight attendants who seemed to go and hide in the back somewhere, the worst part of our holiday was the return journey, we were supposed to fly back on 27/02/05 at 11am but we called the office in Jalandhar on the Saturday 26/02/05 and were told the flight was cancelled and would now go Monday 28/02/05 at 8.30pm, we got to the airport at 5.30pm on Monday and were told the plane hadn't arrived yet but they would start check-in at 8.00pm, while standing in the que outside and talking to a few people i realised that there were passengers here from a flight that had been cancelled on Saturday 26/02/05, looking at the size of the que it didn't take long to work out that there were 2 flights worth of passengers  and only 1 plane coming to pick up, the check in finally opened at 12 midnight and as usual there was a mad panick all the way to the checkin desk, when i got closer to the checkin desk i heard on of the staff say they were running out of seats and so i got to the front and asked if were on the manifesto list and were told we were but still not happy with that i spoke to the Midland Airways rep(Gurminder) and made a bit of a fuss, he explained that because i had business class i would get on the plane but the rest of the approx 100 people in the check in are would not and he also said that this plane had no business class and there would be no seat allocation and that i would have to make a complaint back in the UK, when the check in staff started taking our luggage the rest of the passenger in the checkin lounge started to shout and it finally ended in a fight between with a few male passngers being thrown out of the airport by this time i wanted to get my family away from there and rushed over to imigration, in the departure lounge we were told plane would arrive at 2am but when 2am came we were told it would arrive at 4am and then at 6am and then at 7am, the plane finally arrived at 7.45am and bording started  at 8.30am, becaust there was no seat allocation people were afraid thta too many boarding card may have been issued and there may still be no guarantee of a seat and so everybody started pushing and shoving and the children started crying, the plane finally left at 11.00am and we were told that we would be refueling in Jordan, when the drinks came round we were told that Midland airways hadn't provided any alcohol and only soft drinks would be served, since i've landed back i've been trying to call Midland Airways and nobody picks the phone up and when i ask my agent he says that he canoot get a decent answer either regarding my compaints. I think Birmingham Airport should ban this flight ASAP
 

What the hell do you about the situation??  The airline is NOT cheaper than other airlines that are reliable, and the choice of airlines when flying from Birmingham to Amritsar is not huge.  People bought tickets with midland airways in good faith and expected, and deserve a decent service.  And even if you do pay a little bit less?  does that mean you deserve to spend days waiting in airports???
Keep your uninformed opinions to yourself.

Amritsar on Thai Airways map  
 
New Delhi, March 17
Amritsar could soon be on the map of destinations of the Thai Airways International, as the airline looks to expand its operations in India in the coming year while also attempting to further improve its services to its customers. The Thai Airways General Manager, India and Bhutan, Mr Sudhagun Divaveja, talking to TNS on the sidelines of a media conference said that the airline was looking at starting a service from Amritsar in the near future. The service from Amritsar would be part of the Thai Airways’ attempt to reach other Indian cities which would also include Hyderbad and Ahmedabad.  
 
Mr Divaveja said though the airline, which is considered amongst the best around the world, would be looking at adding Ahmedabad as the first new destination from India but Amritsar could happen by the turn of the year.  
 
This would also depend on the availability of the new aircraft with the airline.  
 
Thai Airways, which announced the launch of its Royal Orchid Holidays, a complete package tour for the travellers from India to Thailand and even beyond, is looking at starting at least three flights a week from Amritsar and the other two destinations. It is also looking at providing the Indian passengers with the comfort of ‘First Class’ travel on Thai Airways by the end of the year by introducing the Boeing 777-300 aircraft on the India-Thailand sector.  
 
Thai Airways at present operates 28 flights per week from India covering Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.
 
Launching the Royal Orchid Holidays, Mr Divaveja said although these holiday packages have been in existence for long they were now being introduced for the Indian travellers also. This, more importantly as, the Indian tourists have turned out to be the highest spenders in Thailand.  
 
It offers as many as 513 main tour plans, 71 stop over packages and 265 optional tours covering more than 116 destinations in 32 countries. He agreed that the packages offered by the Thai Airways could be little on the higher side than those being offered by some of the other airlines to Thailand itself, but he said that these packages would provide Indian travellers with more choice and a greater peace of mind.  

dear friend
under new indian govt. rules passed last year any indian citizen can board the charter flight.For further information please check http://forum.flightmapping.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=296&PN=1

I thought that Thair Air, Malaysia Airlines and British Airways were going to start their flights from/to Amritsar this year, what happened? Will they launch anytime in this year? Please let me know asap.

if any flight from mumbai to amritsar

There are NO direct flights from Amritsar to Mumbai, as the alternative is to change at Delhi, if you are flying through Indian Airlines, Air Deccan or Indian Airlines from Amritsar to Delhi. However, you need to go through the transit at Delhi, if you want a direct flight to Mumbai. Another alternative is, if you live near Chandigarh, there is a daily DIRECT to Mumbai, stopping at Delhi.

I've recently returned back to the Uk, from a 7/8 week holiday in India. I had some problems with the deapture staff in amritsar airport, where I have some difficulty walking and moving, so I wanted to book a wheelchair and the oficials said that I have to pay Rs.1500/-. This is OUT OF CONTROL, When I departed from Birmingham airport, I showed the officials the proof of my disability that I can't walk and I need a wheelchair so they accepted it for free. Right in Amritsar they don't understand it, I had to pay Rs.1500/- for my wheelchair and an extra fee for excess baggage weight. I was so harrased by these people, when I went for passport checking, where a woman took my ticket and passport away and nobody to help me. I felt very upset as no family member could not come inside the terminal building to help me, because he/she is a resident of India. I finally got my passport/ticket back when everyone boarded the plane. Again when my hand luggage was hand-checked, they took out some batteries and kept them here. When leaving the terminal building, I had to walk a very, very long way to the aircraft, no buses or anything. Getting up the starirs was a difficulty for me, as it would be better if there was a air bridge and I can go through it in no time.
Inside the aircraft, I had some problems with my seat, as it was very cramped. I wanted to sit in seat 13D, but someone already sat in 13D and told me to sit in 13E, where If I wanted to go to the toilet or stretch my legs, it would be very hard to get up.
The meals were OK, no problems. Hence, flight from Ashgabat to Birmingham was no problems.
 
Otherwise this airline was not bad so far, except that we need more Indian entertainment like Indian movies/music, not only on London/Birmingham-Ashgabat sectors but in Delhi/Amritsar-Ashgabat sectors also. Cabin crew need to brush up with their English speaking and understand every need of passengers.
 
If you want to write your own comments and suggestions about Amritsar airport or Turkmenistan Airlines then please do so.

Flyjet flights to Amritsar 16/09/05    
Flyjet are now planning to re-start weekly flights to Amritsar starting on Saturday 5th November and plans to operate right through to March 2006. Flight schedules are posted below and flights are expected to be operated by their new 767-200.  
 
Flight schedules:
FJE410/410 Arr 17:55 - Dep 18:55 - Sat (from Gatwick - to Amritsar/Baku)
FJE411/411 Arr 17:10 - Dep 18:10 - Sun (from Amritsar/Baku - to Gatwick)  
 

Dear travellers, I was hoping to fly direct or via Dubai to Amritsar in Feb 06. However after hearing your comments on how elderly and disabled people are treated let alone all the requests for tips and removal of items from luggage I'm not so sure I should bother.
 
Yes I'm willing to pay more for a ticket if it ensures a comfortable journy for my mother and little nieces, no I don't mind an hour or two in delays, and no I don't mind giving tips...as long as it's my choice to give them...ie for good service!!
 
But lost lauggage is a problem as is being harrassed, pushed and shouted at all of which no passanger should have to or be willing to endure! (I'm certainly not willing to put my mother throught it) Having travelled to Delhi 7 years ago with a large group we had no problems whatsoever, and yes I gave tips although your not allowed to as the porters were very helful, with lauggae and the wheelchair......I really feel for the guy who had mobility problems and had to pay for a wheelchair!  
 
If Amritsar Airport needs any tips in efficency maybe they should visit Dabolim Airport in Goa.....there are non of these issues!
 
Like many of you, I look forward to the likes of Virgin, BA and Emirates in particular flying direct from Brum to Amritsar in the near future.

1 thing I forgot to mention, The Amritsar Dubai Air-India Express flight will start somewhere in next year, where there will b enough aircraft to ease.

Hi...
 
I flew with Air India many years ago and found them to be substandard compared to the likes of BA, KLM and other "western" airlines.  
 
Have they changed much? Do the air-stewardes/ess treat the indians aswell as the non-asians nowadays?  
 
My father would like be to book him on a flight from Birmingham-Amritsar, the Uzbekh/Turkmen flights he is happy with, but for a little extra he can actually go direct without having to stop.  
 
I was wondering if anyone had gone recently on Air India using this route and is it worth spending that little extra to go direct?
 
All comments would be greatly appreciated,
 
Many thanks,
 
BSG.