Flight from Amritsar to Kolkata takes off

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 1

IndiGo Airlines on Sunday started a daily flight from city to Kolkata and a temporary flight between city and Srinagar, besides another flight between city and Delhi.

Airport director Manoj Chansoria, along with airline officials, cut a cake at the arrival of the inaugural flight. The occupancy level was nearly 90 per cent in the 180-seater A320 aircraft. With the new flights, domestic connectivity has increased from the holy city’s Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International airport.

According to the schedule, the flight commenced operations from 4.30 am and arrived here at 7.10 am. The same aircraft took off from here at 7.50 am and landed at Srinagar at 8.50 am and returned here at 10.15 am. Sources in the airline said the flight to Srinagar would operate till mid-February. It would take off at 10.45 from here to land in Kolkata at 1.25 pm.

Yogesh Kamra, a passenger who flew in the inaugural Amritsar to Kolkata flight, told Amritsar Tribune over phone that the Sikh community warmly welcomed them at the airport and greeted them with flowers. They also invited them to a prominent gurdwara of Kolkata for stay at night.

The flight to Kolkata heralded the hitherto non-existent connectivity to the northeastern part of the country. It would also connect city to South East Asian countries and also North America.

Amritsar Vikas Manch had met the then Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on July 25 in 2018 with a request to increase domestic connectivity from the Amritsar airport. The minister had promised to allocate flights under phase 3 of the UDAN scheme. Six routes from Amritsar to Varanasi, Goa, Patna, Dharamsala, Jaipur and Kolkata were sought. All routes were allocated and bidding conducted. Of these, three routes were successfully bid by airlines. Flight to Jaipur and Patna had already started.