Air India

[Ashley]

Source:Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 10

After a gap of eight long years, national carrier Air India has announced to resume the Amritsar-Birmngham direct flight from April 1, 2017, meeting the demand of the diaspora in the United Kingdom.

Conveying the decision of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Rajya Sabha MP Shwet Malik, who is also Aviation Consultative Committee member, said: “I conveyed the demand to the Union government, which rectified the mistake committed during the reign of the previous UPA government.

Malik accused the UPA of diverting this “extremely profitable flight from Amritsar to IGI in New Delhi to provide financial benefits to its private operator”.
After Jet Airways discontinued its Amritsar-London flight on August 6, 2006, Air India filled the void with a Amritsar-Birmingham flight the same year. However, it lasted till October 24, 2009.

In between, Air India launched its Amritsar-New Delhi-Birmingham flight on the hub and spoke model from Amritsar airport on August 1, 2013, with limited success.

 

[IanFarquharson]

No mention of Toronto !

 

[nwoody2001]

I think the person in the article doesn't care about Toronto ...an interesting article which looks more about point scoring against AI

 

[ethanegcc]

It certainly looks slightly biased towards Jet Airways e.g. 'after eight long years', 'with limited success' etc.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Some interesting quotes from various sections of the Indian media.

The Economic Times seems to think that the routing will be DEL-ATQ-BHX. Whilst this would be great for Amritsar the CAA figures suggest that the majority of pax are either heading to Delhi or using one of it's connections, a stop in Amritsar will make that less attractive.

He also disclosed that the Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham flight has been accorded sanction by the Union Government which would improve the State's connectivity with the United Kingdom.

There is another article in the Hindi News which mentions direct Amritsar to Birmingham flights next April and then goes on to say "Amritsar to Toronto, it will be extended after Birmingham". It was done through Google Translate which can be sketchy but it seems pretty certain what is meant.

It must be said that these quotes come from various ministers around The Punjab and as far as I can see nothing has come direct from an Air India official, they do however suggest that it's what they have been told.

Hopefully it won't be too long before we hear something from Air India as to what routing will happen and at what frequency. There are so many options available I wouldn't even like to guess, especially if the rumour of an extra 6 weekly flights is true.

Clear as mud!

 

[Coathanger16]

Regarding the DEL-ATQ-BHX flight, where are Air India's B787's based? Presumably at Delhi. As the aircraft would have to re-position the aircraft to ATQ for the flight onto BHX anyway, doesn't it make sense for Air India to offer that as a flight in itself?

Anyone wanting to fly non-stop to Delhi could still use the proposed YYZ-BHX-DEL service.

 

[Ray Finkle]

That's where the confusion lies.

Originally Indian media were quoting that Air India would introduce a DEL-BHX-YYZ service, now local media are saying that a direct ATQ-BHX flight will extend to Toronto.

On one hand there is big demand from Amritsar to both Toronto and Birmingham so having ATQ as the 'direct' leg makes sense. There is also quite a bit of political pressure from The Punjab. On the other hand Delhi is being grown as a hub so would AI want two stops between Delhi and Toronto? Figures also suggest that well over half of the BHX pax are heading to DEL, if a high percentage of those are then connecting further to cities across India an extra stop in ATQ makes that less attractive over one stop elsewhere.

It'll be interesting to see what finally happens.

 

[Coathanger16]

I suppose if both Delhi and Amritsar flights are direct/non-stop to Birmingham, assuming they both arrive at roughly the same time, either one could carry on to Toronto, thereby allowing passengers from both Delhi and Amritsar to connect onto the Toronto flight with just one stop.

We'll just have to wait and see I guess.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Confusion at Air India, who'd have thought it? I wonder if anyone knows what is going on.

While demanding revival of the air link he said the Air India, CMD Ashwani Lohani, had announced to connect India with Toronto through a flight from Amritsar via Birmingham from next year.

On the other hand, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said Amritsar-Delhi-Birmingham flight would be extended to Toronto shortly. He added that there was a plan of changing route of Amritsar-Delhi-Birmingham flight to Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham.

Now, it is not clear what happened to the Air India CMD’s statements regarding plans for resumption of Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto flight.

The concern has been raised after many conflicting statements regarding resumption of flight on the route by officials concerned of the airlines.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/am...er-resumption-of-air-india-flight/341864.html

 

[TM3]

Air India have started they are launching Washington and Copenhagen today but no mention of BHX - Toronto.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india...-copenhagen/story-onz8oVHzvzQ6niyEuD43cI.html

 

[nwoody2001]

Indeed, lots of new routes announced today but nothing about BHX. That said, nothing has also been said about YYZ or ATQ either so hopefully the full picture is yet to be made clear?!

 

[Ray Finkle]

So Air India cited ATQ-BHX-YYZ would start on Feb 15th but in a recent letter their GM then suggested that they are acquiring new aircraft and announcements would follow in time. The suggestion of rerouting the current set up was made by politicians and has not been confirmed by AI themselves.

These are just some of the relevant clips, the full article is linked below.

Amritsar Vikas Manch has reiterated its demand to Air India and Jet Airways for starting non-stop direct international flights from Amritsar.......A direct flight to Birmingham, London, Frankfurt, Toronto or Vancouver has been a long-standing demand by the Punjabis.

In November 2016, Air India CMD Mr. Ashwani Lohani and other higher officials had announced plans of restoring Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto flight from Feb 15, 2017. Now, in reply to a letter by Amritsar Vikas Manch patron, Dr. Charanjit Singh Gumtala, Air India General Manager Market Planning Mr. Rajneesh Bagga has cited that Air India is in the process of acquiring new aircrafts in 2017-18 and they will announce the details like station, route and schedule of new flights at the appropriate time. This indicates that there is no plans by Air India to start any international flights from Amritsar. All the recent announcements by politicians including Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal and MP Shwet Mailk about re-routing of Asr-Delhi-Birmingham flight as Delhi-Asr-Birmingham has not been confirmed by Air India. Air India on Jan 16 has announced start of new non-stop international flights between Delhi-Washington in July 2017, Chandigarh-Bangkok and Delhi-Copenhagen in May 2017. Manch Patron said, this clearly shows discrimination by the National carrier to Amritsar Airport and Punjabis.

Despite the fact that majority of the passengers travelling on Amritsar-Delhi-Birmingham flights are from Punjab, Air India continues to operate this flight via Delhi. In 2015-16, 49,281 passengers travelled between Birmingham and Amritsar via Delhi. According to estimates, similar number of passengers from Jalandhar and surrounding areas that are settled in large numbers in Birmingham prefer to go by road or train to take the flight from Delhi. Passengers find it very inconvenient to first spend 2-3 hours travelling to Amritsar, and then additional six to either hours in total check in, flying and transit time. If flight departs from Amritsar to Birmingham, they will prefer coming to Amritsar. Due to this, Airport also losses international passenger fees to privately run Delhi Airport. Many passengers also fly on Qatar or Turkmenistan Airlines via Doha and Ashgabat to Birmingham. If Air India makes this flight as Delhi-Asr-Birmingham, it will be able to get many more passengers from other private airlines operating from Amritsar and cut down its losses.

http://punjabnewsexpress.com/punjab...rport-by-air-india-and-jet-airways-57551.aspx

 

[Brum X]

Interesting Read, maybe we will know something about this during 2017 but dont expect to see these flights this side of the summer, more like Autumn/Winter 17/18.

 

[Ray Finkle]

It seems as if things are getting rather messy in India.

Air India look to be citing aircraft delivery delays.

Taking note of the submissions, the court directed the convening of a meeting within 10 days between the General Manager (operations) of Air India, representatives of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Intelligence Bureau to sort out the issues about “Hub and Spoke Policy” of Air India. Under “Hub and Spoke Policy”, Air India connects various cities in India with metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai before flying the international passengers abroad.

Also, taking note of the other connected petition filed by the Amritsar Vikas Manch seeking resumption of non-stop international Air India flights from Amritsar International Airport to London, Birmingham and other countries, the court directed Air India to file reply as to why the international flights cannot take off from Delhi to land in Amritsar and then take off directly for international destinations. The petitioner had submitted that as per “Hub and Spoke policy”, at present international passengers are taken by Air India flight to Delhi and they are made to wait there for even 10 hours before taking the next connecting flight to international destinations. The same issue was also raised by the Mohali Industries Association in case of the Chandigarh International Airport.

http://indianexpress.com/article/ci...ts-a-week-between-chandigarh-bangkok-4523594/

 

[Ray Finkle]

The boss of Air India has said that they will launch six new routes this year and Toronto was not mentioned (DEL to TLV, CPH, ARN, IAD and BOM to FRA and JNB/NBO).

They have four more 787's due this year and three 777's due in Q1 2018, so we may have to wait until next year at least. AI also said that once these routes are launched they will be looking at the Chinese market.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Are we back on again?

Air India may launch direct Amritsar-Birmingham flight

Air India is examining modalities for launching this (Amritsar-Birmingham) flight, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

New Delhi :

Government-owned Air India is looking to launch a direct flight service to Birmingham from Amritsar, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

Air India is examining modalities for launching this (Amritsar-Birmingham) flight, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

The national carrier currently operates a flight from Amritsar to Birmingham via Delhi. The airline has already announced its plans to add six new international destinations this year including Tel Aviv, Washington and Copenhagen, among others.

http://www.newsnation.in/india-news...mritsar-birmingham-flight-article-165288.html

 

[Matt995]

guess we will just have to wait and see if Air India do decide to start direct flights to Amirtsar, all seems to have gone quite on Toronto flights! You never know with Air India!

 

[Brum X]

It would be great to have a Direct Amritsar flight, however i wouldnt want to see Delhi disappear as a result of this potential change. Both Indian cities are popular from BHX.

 

[hammerb32]

I do like an anecdote so I'll throw it in here. My Sister in Law is currently in Amritsar, she flew from MAN via Doha with Qatar. Price came out £500 cheaper than AI from Brum via Delhi and BHX via Doha was completely sold out. This does suggest that at least seasonally capacity is still short from BHX.

 

[Ray Finkle]

The Amritsar saga rumbles on, as well as MP's it seems as if high court action is also involved.

I could see Air India just switching the routing to DEL-ATQ-BHX.

The Amritsar airport was knows as a hub of direct connectivity to Singapore (Singapore Airlines), London (Air India and Jet Airways), Birmingham (Air India), Moscow and Abu Dhabi (Air India). Now all these flights have been either shifted to Delhi or Ahmadabad.

He said the Amritsar airport had a few international flights, which did not serve the purpose of being an international airport.

“Amritsar had a potential and deserves more international flights to London, Birmingham, Toronto, Vancouver, Frankfurt, Moscow, Vienna and Rome-Milan. These flights will not only help in recovering Airport’s loss, but also help the local business to flourish,” Aujla added.

He said the more than 100 flights take off or land at the Lahore airport, which is also a border city and the airport was making profits, so the Amritsar airport should not be considered as a border airport.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/am...mritsar-airport-issue-with-p-raju/383886.html