Dera Crisis: Punjabi Diaspora Demand More International Flights to SGRDJ Airport

Amritsar, Aug. 27 (Punjab Post Bureau) – After recent violence in Haryana, NRIs and Punjabi Diaspora all over the World are demanding more direct international connectivity with Sri Guru Ram Das Jee (SGRDJ) International Airport Amritsar. Qatar Airways is the only carrier that is providing direct connectivity via Doha to Europe and North America. Due to high demand and non-availability of seats on this flight, travelers to/from Punjabtravel on road, train or fly to Delhi from Amritsar and Chandigarh for onward travel to these destinations.

Sameep Singh Gumtala, NRI and Overseas Secretary for Amritsar Vikas Manch, said that he has written and talked to many carriers especially from Gulf and Middle East. Thesecarriers are ready to start operations to Amritsar but bilateral seat agreements are not allowing them to do so. Amritsar is not a point of call for airline carriers from Dubai, Oman, Abu Dhabi. These carries have also exhausted all the weekly seats allocated to them for India. Qatar Airways that is already operating a flight from Amritsar wants to start additional flights and bigger plane to Amritsar but they also don’t have additional seats available to them. Ministry of Civil Aviation is not ready to talk with them to renew bilateral service agreements. This is happening on the demand by Indian carriers as they are complaining of losing business to these carriers.

Gumtala said, Air India and Jet Airways has refused to start international operations from Amritsar in reply to the PIL filed by the Manch in Punjab and Haryana High Court. Indian carriers are forcing travelers from the region to fly via Delhi or take flights from Delhi. There is large number of travelers from Ludhiana and Malwa region that do not prefer traveling to Amritsar to fly to Delhi for onward journey to international destinations. This adds time, inconvenience and cost to the journey. So, they prefer travelling by road or train to Delhi. Even travelers to/from Jalandhar do not prefer first traveling to Amritsar, fly to Delhi and then wait at Delhi for international flights. But travelers from the whole region prefers to fly abroad directly from Amritsar. Large load factors on Qatar and other foreign carriers operating from Amritsar proves that if available, travelers to/from the region prefers to take direct flights to foreign destinations.

Manch President Kulwant Singh Ankhi also appealed to all political parties in Punjab to raise joint demand for flights to Amritsar. All the parties should talk to Civil Aviation Ministry to start Direct Air India flights to London, Birmingham and allow Fly Dubai, Emirates and other Gulf carriers to start flights to Amritsar. After violence during Jat reservations in Haryana, road and train travel from Punjab was completely cut-off with Delhi and the only option was to take flights from Amritsar or Chandigarh. Even government had to request Air India to start special flights to Punjab. After a year, it is the same situation and airfares between Amritsar-Delhi and Chandigarh-Delhi rose dramatically as Amritsar Airport serves not only Punjab but neighboring States of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. Various studies have shown that about 35% of international traffic at Delhi Airport comes from Punjab. Still Indian carriers like Jet Airways and Air India has no direct international flights from Amritsar Airport.