More flights sought for city airport

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 28

A group of city residents, under the tutelage of FlyAmritsar Initiative and Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM), on Monday returned after attending the recently held first Global Aviation Summit in Mumbai. The summit was organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation for the promotion of Sri Guru Ramdas Jee International Airport.

FlyAmritsar Initiative also aims to encourage different airlines to start direct flights to Amritsar.

The delegation, including Yogesh Kamra, co-convener of FlyAmritsar Initiative and additional secretary of AVM, Daljit Singh Saini, Initiative Taskforce member, held meetings with several airlines to present the city airport before the aviation world and major global airline operators.

Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla also joined the delegation at the summit.

Kamra informed that the delegation met network planning officers of Indigo Airline, Japan Airline, AirAsia India, Star Air, Counsel General of Saudi Arabia, Air India, LOT Polish Airlines, GMR and GVK group that is running Delhi, Mumbai airports and presented them a strong case for better connectivity of local airport.

At a meeting with chief planning office for network planning, Michael Swiatek of IndiGo, they thanked his team for bringing good connectivity to Amritsar airport by starting flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Dubai. They also discussed demand for westbound connectivity, like UK, Europe, Canada and USA.

They requested IndiGo and Turkish Airlines to start a direct flight from Amritsar to Istanbul.