At Amritsar, you are supposed to hop & stop

Neeraj Bagga in Amritsar

City’s Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport boasts of many international flights in its repertoire of global connectivity. For Punjabis, it has little. Most of its flights are not meant to those destinations where Punjabis in general and Sikhs in particular live. 

That is despite the fact that there is an ever-growing demand for direct flights from the Holy City to London and Toronto. The city is air-linked with Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Ashgabat (Turkmenistan), Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and Dubai. It has prompted Kulwant Singh Ankhi to file a PIL, seeking resumption of non-stop international Air India flights from Amritsar to London, Birmingham and Toronto. Seven carriers are operating on international sectors from Amritsar. The Amritsar-Dubai route is almost fully occupied. Sources in the Airport Authority of India (AAI) say the airport has state-of-the-art features such as new Instrument Landing System, a re-carpeted of 3,658-meter-long runway which can cater to aircraft operations of heavy Boeing 747-400 and Boeing 767-400 ER, new flight Information Display system and perishable cargo apparatus.

However, there is negligible cargo exchange from the Amritsar airport. Its annual export stands at about 800 metric tons of general cargo, largely consisting of textile, readymade garments, pharmaceutical, engineering goods and others. It imports about 80 metric tons of cargo with medical equipment and food supplement dominating the list. 

“I travel to London twice a year. First, I have to reach Delhi from Punjab and then catch a connecting flight, which again flies over the Amritsar airspace,” says Dr Charanjit Singh, a city resident. “It increases my expenses, and takes longer too,” he says. An NRI, settled in Ohio (US), Sameep Singh, says, after landing at the Delhi airport, people like him have to wait for hours to catch another flight to Amritsar or choose train or bus. 

The withdrawal of direct flight between Amritsar-London and Amritsar-London-Toronto by various operators such as Air India and Jet Airways offered opportunity to overseas airlines to reap dividends. In 2009, Qatar Airways introduced Amritsar-Doha flight, which was gradually made daily. Passengers bound for UK, Italy, Spain and Canada like the flight as it connects them to Doha’s Hamad International Airport, which offers connectivity to 170 international destinations. 

Rajya Sabha MP Shewt Malik, who is also a member of the Aviation Consultative Committee, says privatization of Delhi’s IGIA stalled the growth of Amritsar airport. “The present owners of Delhi airport and lobby of tourism industry in the national capital has literally strangled development and growth of airport in the holy city.”