Punjab Post Daily Online Newspaper & Print Media
Amritsar, Dec. 1 (Punjab Post Bureau) – Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji International Airport is getting step motherly treatment from Akali government of Punjab as well as the BJP central governmental. Amritsar, which is the religious capital of the Sikhs as well as tourism capital of Punjab, is getting lukewarm response from both the governments so for the development of its airport is concerned. Despite being the second to Delhi airport and having world class facilities including 12,000’ft longest runway equal to Delhi airport with Cat III B-ILS System which will be functional from March 2017, an ultramodern terminal building and 1400 acres land for future expansion, the airport is not receiving positive approach from the Punjab as well as the central government.
Sh. Kulwant Singh Ankhi President Amritsar Vikas Manch said that The Punjab government is much more interested to start international flights from Mohali rather than Guru Ki Nagri. The personal interest are more dearer to the Punjab government rather than the interests of Guru Ki Nagri.
The present BJP government did nothing to resume Amritsar-London-Toronto flight which was suspended in 2009 by Air India despite being the most successful flight in the annals of Air India’s history. Amritsar and its surrounding districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Pathankot has nine BJP MLAs in the Punjab assembly. But they took no initiative to put pressure on the central government to resume Amritsar-London-Toronto flight as well as introduce more international flights from Amritsar airport to various destinations in the world where large number of Punjabis are settled.
Amritsar is a world famous city and whole Punjabi Diaspora settled across the globe prefers the holy city and has been demanding more direct international flights from Amritsar to various destinations in U.S.A, Canada, Europe, Australia etc, So that they can pay their obeisance to Sri Harimandir Sahib.
The popularity of Amritsar airport is such that now even indirect Amritsar-London flight via Delhi is the number one flight of Air India among all of its international flights originating from Delhi in 2015-16. The Turkmenistan airlines Amritsar-Ashgabat flight is also in the airlines top 10 international flights. Qatar Airways wants to increase seats or deploy bigger plane for its Amritsar-Doha sector but it is not getting permission. All other international flights from Amritsar such as Scoot to Singapore, Malindo to Kuala Lumpur and two daily Amritsar-Dubai flights by Air India Express and Spice Jet are getting more than 90% load. All domestic flights from Delhi and Mumbai are having more than 95% loads.
Amritsar airport received 12.50 lakh passengers in 2015-2016. In the first half of 2016-17 the increase in passengers at Amritsar airport in more than 40%. In June 2016 international passengers at the Amritsar airport were 1.25 lakh as compared to June 2015 showing increase of 59.6%. From April to June 2015 the number of passengers were 69,507 while this year the number of passengers increased to 1,10,916. This shows that Amritsar has great potential.
Many international airlines such as Turkish Airlines, Bulgaria BH, Emirates, Ethihad, Air Asia X etc are interested to start flights from Amritsar airport but due to negative approach of the central as well as Punjab government, these airlines are not getting permission to fly from Amritsar. it is due to indifferent attitude of the Punjab government, that the Jet Airways has not yet started Amritsar-Abudhabi flights which was announced by it in 2013. The Jet airways has code share with Etihad Airlines and it announced that six Indian cities including Amritsar will be connecting to Abudhabi. It has already started flights to Abudhabi from other five Indian cities except Amritsar.
Air India violated its own Hub and Spoke policy by starting Ahmedabad-London-Newark direct international flight only to appease the Indian Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi.
But on the other hand, Air India has stuck to its policy of Hub & Spoke by not introducing direct international flights from Amritsar. Rather it is incurring huge loss by bringing the plane from Delhi to Amritsar only to bring back it to Delhi and then fly again over Amritsar on its Delhi-London and Delhi-Birmingham route. Amritsar airport has the benefit of being 45 minutes nearer to western bound flights as compared to Delhi and thus direct flights from Amritsar has the benfit of saving more fuel as well as time.
Sh. Sukhbir Singh Badal DCM is making every effort to promote Amritsar city as world class tourism destination by constructing world class heritage street from Sri Harimandir Sahib to Town Hall Building, War Museum, Sada Pind, Urban Hat and a partion Museum besides introducing BRTS System in the city. We appeal to Badal to use his influence for the resumption of Amritsar-London-Toronto direct flights besides starting direct flights from Amritsar to Vancouver, San Francisco, New York, Frankfurt, London, Birmingham, Rome, Milan, Paris etc. Sukhbir Singh Badal has deep attachment with Sh. Harimandir Sahib and he visits the shrine every month to pay his obeisance. Being a devout Sikh, Sukhbir Singh Badal should ensure that the airport named after the 4th Sikh Guru Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji should be in profit and it should have direct air connectivity with all major cities of the world. We appeal to him that he should also strive hard to make Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji International airport as one of busiest and successful airports in the India. More international connectivity of Amritsar will bring more tourists and more business and more prosperity to the city of Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji.
