Sidhu urged to help begin int’l flights

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 17

At a meeting held with representatives of the Amritsar Vikas Manch at Chandigarh, Punjab Local Bodies, Tourism and Culture Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu asked the Central Government to stop discrimination with the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport and start direct international flights immediately.

Sameep Singh Gumtala of the AVM said the holy city being a spiritual and cultural centre of the Sikh religion is a preferred destination for the Punjabi diaspora and foreign tourists.

Since the start of the Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto flight in May 2005, occupancy was approximately 92 per cent from Amritsar. With privatisation of the Delhi airport in 2010, these flights were re-routed from Delhi. Due to this, international traffic that was approximately 75 per cent of the total traffic till 2009 took a big hit and became 75 per cent domestic and only 25 per cent direct international passengers.

He said Sidhu highlighted that Delhi is the only airport in the country that is charging double User Development Fee (UDF) per passenger both for landing and departure, but still Air India and other international carriers are paying this fee and operating maximum flights from Delhi.

He said Delhi Airport is recovering Rs 300 crore every month through these charges, and at this rate, by March 2019, it would have collected Rs. 17157.15 crore against the originally targeted Rs 7709.61 crore.

On the other hand, Amritsar airport suffered a loss of Rs 50 crore last fiscal.

Gumtala said it was high time that the government should take initiative and initiate strict action to bring the local airport in profit, which would not only reduce the inconvenience caused to the public at large, but would also utilize the public money the best possible way.

There are many foreign carriers like Emirates, Etihad, Oman Air, Air Asia, Lufthansa, British Airways, Turkish, etc. who have already shown their interest to fly from Amritsar, but bilateral agreements of seat sharing and other policies of government are a hindrance in starting of these flights, which the government should look into and try bringing these airlines to the Amritsar airport by any means, he said.