Amritsar-Birmingham flight resumes

Charanjit Singh Teja 

Tribune News Service 

Amritsar, February 20

Finally, Air India has reintroduced the direct flight between Amritsar and Birmingham. Air India will run two flights per week. 

Union Minister of State Vijay Sampla, along with Amritsar MP Gurjit Singh Aujla and Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik, flagged off the flight at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee (SGRDJ) International Airport here today. 

Sampla said the revival of the direct flight to Birmingham would benefit the people of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh as their fruits, vegetables and other agriculture products would be in the direct reach of the UK. “The city has great geographical importance and the flight will add to the glory of the depriving Amritsar airport,” Sampla added.

Talking to mediapersons here, Malik said, “The flight will prove to be a boon for the people. During the Congress government in 2010, the flight was stopped just to provide financial benefits to the Delhi airport. It depicted the anti-farmer and anti-Punjabi thought process of the Congress as most of the income of cargo i.e. fruits, vegetables and other agro products was benefiting the farmers of Punjab. The reintroduction of the flight will save five to six hours as well as the cost.”

Pankaj Srivastava, director, Commercial Air India Limited, assured to review the success of the flight and to make it a daily affair. He also promised direct air connectivity to Canada. 

Malik demanded new direct flights to Canada, US, Australia and New Zealand to facilitate the Punjabi community living there. 

Air India had started flight in 1982 

The Amritsar-Birmingham flight will operate every Tuesday and Thursday. It is not the first time that Air India has started operations on this route. It had started a flight from Amritsar to Birmingham on January 3, 1982, and it emerged as a profit-making operation. However, due to unrest in the state, the flight was discontinued in 1984. Air India relaunched the service on May 15, 2005, and it operated till 2010