Air India

[Silvercity]

I've used AIs service BHX to DEL several times for work reasons. I live in Mid Cheshire and take train to Birmingham from my local station at Acton Bridge, its pretty easy. Delhi Airport has also improved with respect to transferring too. It was a mess but last time I transferred for an AI Bangkok flight there it was much smoother.

 

[Ray Finkle]

A Tweet from Preet Kaur Gill, MP for Edgbaston, about the new flights to Amritsar. Reading the comments below it seems that political campaigning has been going on for over 8 years.

There are now calls for direct flights to Ahmedabad for the large Gujarati population across the East Midlands. Even though we've welcomed representatives from AMD and the region something tells me that it quite a while off yet.

https://twitter.com/PreetKGillMP/status/934034115782987776

 

[Ianbutty]

Good to see the MPs making the case. Good on her.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

The Air India website doesn't seem to have been updated yet with the current schedule still showing, so it's hard to say if it will be a straight 2/5 split or if the routing will just reverse twice a week.

According to a write up on the Birmingham Airport Photo Blog -

http://bhxflightguide.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/news-airindia.html

The days when the rote is direct to/from ATQ is just a reversal of the current service.

'Air India, which already operates a hugely popular daily non-stop Boeing 787-8 service
from Birmingham to Delhi, plans to re-route two of their weekly flights in 2018 to operate
non-stop to Amritsar, the home of the Golden Temple, before continuing onto Delhi'.

Hope this clears up some concerns.

Kevin

 

[Brum X]

Good to see Delhi retains its daily operation, although on 2 days of the week it wont be a non stop flight.

 

[nwoody2001]

....yes I find this modest change more refreshing ...

 

[richard winterbourn]

....and could it make it more profitable for Air India? Could pax leaving at Amritsar be replaced by pax bound for Delhi?

 

[Coathanger16]

....and could it make it more profitable for Air India? Could pax leaving at Amritsar be replaced by pax bound for Delhi?

As in passengers travelling Amristar to Delhi? Air India have 3 other flights per day beside the BHX one, so not sure how much it would add. Plenty of competition on that route as well.

 

[Ray Finkle]

A change of tone from Air India has caused some concern in the Punjabi community.

"Air India is in process of exploring the possibility of operating flights between Amritsar and Birmingham in 2018," Sunil Sahore, counsel for the Air India told the Punjab and Haryana high court. He produced an e-mail from the Air India headquarters for conveying this to the high court, however, it also clarified that "no confirmed dates of operations can be given at this point of time."

 

[Kevin Farnell]

A change of tone from Air India has caused some concern in the Punjabi community.

"Air India is in process of exploring the possibility of operating flights between Amritsar and Birmingham in 2018," Sunil Sahore, counsel for the Air India told the Punjab and Haryana high court. He produced an e-mail from the Air India headquarters for conveying this to the high court, however, it also clarified that "no confirmed dates of operations can be given at this point of time."

I was wondering if this was some older news that had re-surfaced, but the links I found were from 3 and 2 days ago respectively -

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...ngham-flight-in-2018/articleshow/62044638.cms

https://dailypost.in/news/punjab/majha/air-india-non-stop-amritsar-birmingham-flight/

Seems an odd way for an airline (or any business for that matter) to market it's services, but then this is Air India!

Kevin

 

[thunderchild]

A tweet suggests the direct Amritsar flights begin Feb 15.

 

[Ray Finkle]

A tweet suggests the direct Amritsar flights begin Feb 15.

I've just seen that but the Air India website and Amadeus are still showing all flights via Delhi. It's quite specific to name a date so I'll check again tomorrow.

 

[Hassaan]

I hope this works out for them (on paper, it should do really).

Ray, can you check your messages? Thanks.

 

[rollo]

Thr workings of airlines are a bit of a mystery but Air India are probably in the top one to borrow a phrase from Brian Clough.
Seriously though Amritsar should be successful and hopefully may lead to expansion in the future especially if they could get some sort of tie in with the Primera Toronto service unlikely as that might be.

 

[Brum X]

Yes I think this is positive news, we don't gain any flights however we keep our status as the premier airport to India outside London

 

[Ray Finkle]

Every Tuesday and Thursday from Feb 15th according to the Hindustan Times.

Air India will start two non-stop flights per week from Amritsar to Birmingham on February 15 to cater to the demands of the large number of tourists visiting Amritsar and the people of Punjab-origin living in Birmingham, member of parliament for Amritsar, Gurjeet Singh Aujla said on Monday.

The Birmingham Airport will be the only UK airport to operate the non-stop service on the new route. Air India has been operating a popular daily service from New Delhi since August.

Aujla said: “It is a great news for the holy city that we will have non-stop connection with Birmingham. The flight will fly twice a week— Tuesday and Thursday.”

Informing about the time schedule of the flight, the MP said that the flight will take off at 13:55 IST from Siri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar, and reach Birmingham at 17:15 BST. He said the flight will depart from Birmingham at 18:45 BST and arrive at Amritsar Airport at 07:45 IST.

Aujla said, “It was a long-pending demand of tourists visiting Amritsar to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple.”

He said, “I had a meeting with MP Birmingham Preet Gill, Slough MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, and Ealing Southall MP Virendra Kumar Sharma to start the flights.”

“I am also making efforts to start more direct international and domestic flights from Amritsar as the holy city has been witnessing rapid increase in footfalls of tourist,” he said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/punja...from-feb-15/story-JEZhh1tbCKU6UwsLgaoRNI.html

 

[Ianbutty]

Every Tuesday and Thursday from Feb 15th according to the Hindustan Times.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/punja...from-feb-15/story-JEZhh1tbCKU6UwsLgaoRNI.html

Blimey Ray: your reading material is from far and wide.

 

[thunderchild]

Given the impressive load factors from Air India I’d hope that there is scope to get Delhi back to daily.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Given the impressive load factors from Air India I’d hope that there is scope to get Delhi back to daily.

I believe that Delhi will still be daily, but on those two days the Amritsar sector will be non stop with Delhi the onward destination.

Kevin

 

[Deleted member 8862]

I wonder if the news regarding an Air India service incorporating Amritsar will perhaps persuade Uzbekistan
to think again about a proposed renewal of BHX operations.

They may decide to try their luck somewhere a little further north...