Air India to launch 3 weekly flights from
Amritsar to UK, Canada in May
Amritsar, February 19
The large NRI population in the state will have the privilege to take direct flights from UK and Canada to the heartland of Punjab. The national carrier Air India has announced three weekly direct flights connecting New Delhi, Amritsar, Birmingham and Toronto starting from May 15 this year.
The chairman of the National Commission of Minorities, Rajya Sabha member and member Parliamentary Committee on Civil Aviation, Mr Tarlochan Singh, today in an exclusive talk on telephone from New Delhi said the meeting of the committee held at Mumbai yesterday had given go ahead to operate the much awaited Air India flight for the benefit of the large chunk of Punjabi NRIs who hail from the Doaba belt of Punjab.
Mr Tarlochan Singh said on his personal appeal the Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, had agreed to constitute a parliamentary sub-committee to monitor the progress of Amritsar airport. He said the sub-committee would visit Amritsar in March to take stock of the situation.
Mr Tarlochan Singh said he had been lobbying for starting the Air India flight from Amritsar International Airport as there were more than 50-weekly flights being operated by Singapore Airlines, Indian Airlines besides the non-scheduled airline flights belonging to CIS countries, including Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Air Slovak and some tourist charter operators connecting various destinations throughout the world. He added that with the introduction of Air India, the NRI and local passengers would be greatly benefited as it would provide direct link to the UK and Canada besides offering great export potential by utilising weekly cargo space available on these aircraft.
Besides Air India, the other airlines, including Malaysian Air Service, Air Phuket (Thai Airways), Korean Airways and more domestic airlines are also likely to start their operations from this airport by the middle of this year. The Director Airport Mr V.S. Mulekar, said by the end of this year more than 80 flights would be operating from this airport with more than three lakh passengers using the Rajasansi Airport during this year.
Meanwhile, the passengers who had to waitterminal building the expansion plan of which had been delayed for a considerable period of time was expected to become operational by July this year and this would ease the pressure on the existing non-descript facilities which have earned the ire of a large number of for two to three hours to pick up their baggage.
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