Direct flights from Amritsar to London soon
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service  
 
Chandigarh, February 16
Direct flights to London from Amritsar will become a reality soon. The Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, today cleared a proposal of Jet Airways to start such flights on a regular basis.
 
Mr M.S. Gill, Member of the Rajya Sabha, told The Tribune on the phone from Delhi that Mr Patel had met him this morning in Parliament House. “Mr Patel told me that there was good news for the people of Punjab. He said that he had cleared the Jet Airways proposal to start direct flights from Amritsar to London”, said Mr Gill.
 
“I have been regularly pursuing this matter with the Civil Aviation Ministry. As a substantial number of people from Punjab visit London every year, the starting of direct flights to that city from Amritsar will be a big facility for them. In the absence of regular direct flights to London, people were facing problems”, said Mr Gill. “As Mr Naresh Goel, Chairman of Jet Airways, belongs to Patiala, I urged him to start operations from Amritsar at the earliest”, added Mr Gill.
 
“Mr Patel also told me that low-tariff flights will also start from Amritsar to Dubai on the Kerala pattern by March-end. People from this region are employed in large numbers in Dubai and neighbouring countries such as Kuwait”, said Mr Gill.  
 
 

please write your own views about direct flights from ATQ to LHR/LGW.

Davinder,
 
We were informed that Jet Airways flights were going to start 1st week in November 2005! and then it went quiet. It can't be too long because they have been planning this for sometime and they need to be ready for the peak July/August traffic. Will post here has soon as we have it confirmed. Regards Amritsar.Travel

I agree Mr Dhalliwal, but the A340 requires a long runway and extenstive modifcations to the Airport because of its size and capacity. Even Delhi and London Heathrow airports will need to be modified for the A340. For Amritsar, any of the existing Airbus aircrafts would help and a London to Amritsar non stop flight would be excellent.

Sorry - yes you are right, I was referring to the new 555 seater A380 which has yet to be released and for which airports will have to be modified to cater for the extra capacity.

I have just travelled with Jet Airways from London to Delhi and their service is fantastic! I will definately recommend Jet as they truly do treat their passengers in a first class manner. If they commence flights to Amritsar from London, I am sure that they will set an excellent standard for other airlines to follow.
 
Well done Jet Airways! Please continue with the goodwork. I am glad that once the Air Sahara acquistion is completed that you are the ideal airline to represent India rather than Air India.

Davinder, I totally agree with you, but what needs to happen is that, this issue needs to be taken up at the punjab government level, i.e. the chief minster standing up for the rights of punjab and its NRIs, then we might see some action.

im sure that amritsar can deal with a ab-340, because its runaway size is 10,700. Hyderabad is about 9,000 and Bangalore is 10,800. Amritsar can deal with aircraft sizes from B767 to A-330, maybe A340.
Its unlikely it would have a A-380 landing here and taking the entire space of the apron.
 
Has departure lounge opened yet, as in next month i'll see it for myself.
 
Please let me know if more building works(expansion on new building) ASAP.