Air India

[Ray Finkle]

The Punjabi court dealing with the Air India/Amritsar case has said that if AI are not interested in operating ATQ-BHX direct then Amritsar Airport can ask private airlines to open the route.

It also said that the majority of the pax were to Amritsar then goes on to say that the ATQ loads only accounted for 36.2% of the total? Their reasoning is that many passengers make their own way to Delhi to fly direct rather than wait for the connection. Google Maps tells me that it's a 7 hour drive from Amritsar to Delhi with a similar journey time by train, is that really preferable to a couple of hours or so connection?

 

[hammerb32]

I do have a sympathy with AI here, for years they've operated routes at the behest and pressure of local politicians, often for very flawed reasons. Finally they're building a sensible hub at Delhi offering 1 stop links across India and around the world and now they have a politician demanding ATQ gets direct flights to skip the DEL hub. Although I would normally support most things that bring an extra route or 2 to BHX, in this case I do fear that direct flights to ATQ and DEL would be an overkill and could lead to a loss of both rather than a nice build up into DEL. The loads they're getting suggest a 2nd flight could soon be justified maybe 3 days a week and could then be expanded further. Lets hope common sense wins out here.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Definitely. Building up Delhi looked to be working okay until Ahmedabad got their AMD-LHR-EWR flight.

I may be wrong but it appears to be a case of, if Gujarat has these flights from AI then we want some too?

 

[Brum X]

You would also think that Turkmenistan would look into doing BHX-ATQ direct, after all they are a familiar brand for the Punjabi community here in Brum and im sure there flights would be popular too. I would not expect many passengers to leave at Ashkhabad if any do at all. Im sure it is a lovely place though.

Would such a flight be allowed ??

 

[thunderchild]

Given three airlines offer one-stop flights from Amritsar to Birmingham you would think there would be enough demand for a non stop flight and like you say Turkmenistan probably don't carry many (if any) passengers on the Ashgabat leg anyway.

I'm surprised Emirates hasn't started Amritsar yet.

 

[Brummiegem]

I think many on here would be surprised at the number of passengers not actuallly connecting to ATQ on the TUA flights.The number has gone up over the last couple of years.Might be one of the reasons why the service has lasted so long.
Also the number of people on the AI flights not going to ATQ is also increasing.
These are great niche flights for BHX and are now firmly established.
The introduction of the Dreamliner has also meant that reliability has been greatly improved.Turkenistan Airlines has improved its performance as well.
While there may not be any immediate plans to expand services from either airline,the future looks bright.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Turkmenistan also offer other connections through ASB and Bangkok is particularly popular from BHX. In 2015 BKK actually saw more connections from Birmingham than ATQ (funnily enough BKK was also popular with Mahan?).

Saying that if Turkmenistan could get UK-India traffic rights they'd easily fill their 777's but I can't see it happening anytime soon. Scoot are looking for direct India-UK flights in the future and they've said that it could be many years before the relevant permissions are in place.

Keep the daily 787 to Delhi as it is and add a 3x weekly 773 operating DEL-ATQ-BHX-YYZ then back again, perfect

 

[Paulsstrange]

For me a 3 or 4 weekly Mumbai via Toronto would work wonders....

 

[Ray Finkle]

Now Air India may not be considered an airline that changes it's mind often but it seems as if the 787-900's are back on with plans to lease in seven of them (it'll change again next week).

Toronto seems to be back under consideration (no mention of a stop off) along with Vancouver, Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles.

No doubt the 789 would have the range to do direct so whether a stop off is also under consideration remains to be seen.

http://www.business-standard.com/ar...induct-wide-bodied-boeing-117040300720_1.html

 

[IanFarquharson]

14/4 - 242 pax in 226 pax out

 

[Ashley]

Not BHX related.

Air India on Wednesday said it will commence thrice weekly operations to Stockholm, Sweden, from August 15, 2017.

Also Nairobi and Frankfurt will be launched from Mumbai thrice weekly.


http://www.business-standard.com/ar...lm-operations-from-august-117051701679_1.html

 

[Brum X]

Not BHX related.

Air India on Wednesday said it will commence thrice weekly operations to Stockholm, Sweden, from August 15, 2017.

Also Nairobi and Frankfurt will be launched from Mumbai thrice weekly.


http://www.business-standard.com/ar...lm-operations-from-august-117051701679_1.html

There is always the Worldwide Airline Forum that Aviador likes to encourage people to use. Just a suggestion

 

[Brum X]

Its great that we have Birmingham in that list of European cities.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Chandigarh-Bangkok to start in Nov and a status report on Amritsar to Birmingham has been requested for July 18th.

The Bench hearing the case was provided the information almost 10 months after the Chandigarh-Bangkok flight by Air India was first announced. The flight was to start in April, but was deferred till May. Taking up the matter, the Division Bench headed by Justice SS Saron asked Air India to submit its status report on restarting the Amritsar-Birmingham flight by July 18.

https://www.nyoooz.com/news/chandigarh/863535/come-november-air-india-to-fly-bangkok/

 

[nwoody2001]

not long to wait then.....

 

[Ray Finkle]

An article about Indigo and the potential of them buying the international arm of Air India, which would obviously give them access to Birmingham.

I imagine that there would be a huge amount of work to do before anything even comes close.

https://defenceaviationpost.com/24-...o-digest-air-indias-international-operations/

 

[Frankie4]

Wonderful News
Air India to fly direct to Amritsar from Birmingham... Twice a week!
https://www.birminghamairport.co.uk...a-to-fly-non-stop-from-birmingham-to-amritsar

 

[thunderchild]

Amritsar get their wish!

https://www.birminghamairport.co.uk...a-to-fly-non-stop-from-birmingham-to-amritsar

 

[nwoody2001]

Did not see this coming!!!!

Question is, there seems very little detail here and the new article pretty vague. 2x weekly on 787 but what dates and when is early 2018.... Hope this is not at the expense of 2 of our daily BHX-DEL flights....

 

[IanFarquharson]

Probably prompted by the 'new' airline coming online in 2018