Amritsar: Keeping up the efforts for boosting the domestic and international connectivity from Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport, Amritsar for Amritsar & Punjab region, a delegation of FlyAmritsar Initiative let by its Convener met with officials of Star Air India, Thai Airways, Thai Smile, & Air Asia at Delhi and Bengaluru.
In a press release, the Global Convener for FlyAmritsar Initiative and Overseas Secretary of Amritsar Vikas Manch, Sameep Singh Gumtala, NRI from the USA along with Convener (India) Yogesh Kamra informed that they had a fruitful meetings with different airlines where they presented detailed data and statistics to the airline officials.
They had a very fruitful meeting with Simran Singh Tiwana, CEO of Star Air at Delhi and shared the statistics for air linking Amritsar with Ahmedabad and other airports. Star Air is currently launching flights on several routes under government-initiated UDAN scheme. During the previous term of Modi government, FlyAmritsar Initiative along with representatives from acclaimed civil society organization Amritsar Vikas Manch met with Minister of Civil Aviation Sh. Jayant Sinha that lead to the inclusion of Amritsar in UDAN-3 phase. Currently, due to UDAN-3, direct flights are operating from Amritsar to Jaipur by Spicejet and Kolkata by Indigo.
Gumtala informed that a meeting was also held with Thai Airways officials to link Amritsar directly to Bangkok, capital of Thailand. Thai airline currently operates direct flights from Bangkok to several cities in Australia and New Zealand, where a large number of Punjabis resides in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Auckland, Christchurch and other cities.
During the meeting, we shared the statistics about Air Asia X, Malindo Air and Scoot flights from Amritsar to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and transit passengers flying via these airports to Australia. These flights are becoming very popular and providing convenient connectivity for the Punjabis. Bangkok is one of the world’s largest tourist and commercial cities. Every year lakhs of people from Punjab travel to Bangkok. This direct flight will not only benefit the tourist from Punjab to Thailand but also from Bangkok to the holy city of Amritsar, which is now a major tourist destination in India, said Kamra.
Gumtala and Kamra also met with officials of Air Asia at its office in Bengaluru regarding start of flights to Bangkok by Thai Air Asia X and flights to Delhi and other destinations in India by Air Asia India. Gumtala said that it was FlyAmritsar Initiative that approached the Air Asia in 2017 with detailed statistics, held several meetings with them, after which it decided to commence flights from Amritsar to Kuala Lumpur.
We thanked Air Asia for the Kuala Lumpur flight, which has been in operation since August 2018 and expressed happiness that this flight which started in August 2018 has conveniently linked Punjabis via Kuala Lumpur to Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, and many other countries. We are hopeful that Amritsar will be connected with Bangkok in the year 2020, said Kamra.
