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Now, fly daily to UK, Canada from Amritsar
From Oct 31, Air India to operate separate flights, with a halt at IGIA
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 7
With the hub and spoke model in place after the coming up of swank new terminal “T3” at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, national carrier Air India is unlikely to reverse its decision to withdraw the direct Amritsar-London-Toronto flight from the Rajasansi International Airport. However, beginning October 31, the national carrier will launch two separate daily flights to London and Toronto from Amritsar with a stopover in Delhi to augment international connectivity of the Holy City.

An Air India spokesman told The Tribune that the Amritsar-Delhi-London flight will take off at 0450 hours and reach London at 1130 local time while the Amritsar-Delhi-Toronto flight will take off at 2210 hours and reach Toronto at 0745 local time. Passengers will change over to Boeing 777 at the IGIA during the stopover of one and a half hours. Besides, there will also be two daily flights to the National Capital and back.

After withdrawing the non-stop Amritsar-London-Toronto flight, Air India has been flying Amritsar-Delhi-London-Toronto four times a week on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. However, the airline is not being able to completely utilise its capacity, with the London-Toronto stretch going half empty on most days.

Air India says that with the new schedule at Rajasansi, passengers will get daily connectivity to London and Toronto and also save on time. “Passengers will be issued boarding cards at Amritsar after security and immigration check. Their journey time will be reduced and they will also get to spend one and a half hours at Delhi, where they can use world-class facilities of T3,” the spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, a direct flight between Toronto and Amritsar meant passengers from other cities could not board that plane. With reports of the withdrawal of Amritsar-London-Toronto flight from October 31 and no further clarity on the issue, there was a great hue and cry, especially among the NRI community of Punjab. They recently wrote to Air India to revoke its decision. There were also representations to PM Manmohan Singh to talk to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. Some politicians had alleged that the move was meant to marginalise the Amritsar airport to develop other airports in Punjab.