Now, direct flights from Australia, New Zealand to holy city Amritsar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 5

The Punjabi community residing in Australia, New Zealand and other Southeast Asian countries would now have the privilege of multiple flight options than ever before for flying directly from Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International (SGRDJI) Airport.

The facility for direct flights would be provided by four prominent airlines — Batik Air, Air Asia X and Malaysia Airlines from Malaysia and Scoot of Singapore — all of which would operate flights to Amritsar via their respective hubs in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. All these airlines are competing and eyeing the Punjabi diaspora for increasing their business.

Sameep Singh Gumtala, convener, FlyAmritsar Initiative, said starting from November 8, Malaysia Airlines would commence two weekly direct flights from its hub in Kuala Lumpur to the holy city. The airlines would provide direct flights from Punjab to multiple cities across Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Vietnam and more countries.

These cities include Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Auckland, Bangkok, Phuket, Bali, Ho Chi Minh City and Manila. This would be the third airline from Malaysia starting its operations to Amritsar providing a total of 700 seats per week.

The airlines is also part of the Oneworld Alliance that shares passengers with airline carriers of many countries including Qantas in Australia. The journey to cities in Australia and New Zealand can be completed in just 15 to 17 hours.

To further enhance and improve convenient connectivity both ways, Singapore’s Scoot is changing its time schedule during the winter season from November to March end. The Scoot flight would now arrive at Amritsar airport in the morning at 9:05 am and depart for Singapore at 10:30 am. The airline operates its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft with either 335 or 375 seats on this route providing a total of 3,430 seats per week.

“The new flight timings would now offer seamless connectivity for both inbound and outbound travellers to a wide network of destinations beyond Singapore,” said Gumtala. He urged Punjabis to prefer flying directly to Amritsar instead of Delhi to support all flights and make them successful.

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