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<\/A>The flights will be operated with state-of-the-art, fly-by-wire Boeing 777-222 ER aircraft on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. [webindia<\/A>] \n<\/P>\n
Sunday’s inaugural flight was flagged off by the federal civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, and Punjab’s chief minister, Capt Amarinder Singh<\/A>. To handle the increased air traffic, the airport at Amritsar is being given a $15m makeover which includes a new terminal building and modern landing aids. [BBC<\/A>]<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
This is just the first step. These flights will be upgraded to daily in the upcoming months and additional flights from Amritsar to the Gulf and<\/A> other western countries are planned<\/A>. <\/P>\n
Air India isn’t the only airline increasing its flights through Rajasansi Airport; everybody wants a piece of the NRI action. In 8 years, the number of flights has increased from 3 to 56 per week<\/A>:<\/P>\n
<\/P>\n
Singapore Airline, which landed here four months ago, has been going full–three days a week. And with a new terminal likely to open in October, British Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Phuket Airlines, Tajikistan Airlines, Uzbek Airways<\/a> and Air-India are also lining up a landing here, say officials. \n<\/P>\n
Even cargo flights, such as those of Ariana to Kabul, are planning to double their flights from three to six in a week, while First Flight, a courier service, has evinced interest in starting operations, say officials. [Indian Express<\/A>]<\/BLOCKQUOTE>\n
Interestingly, this new Air India route is a cousin of an older cold-war era Mumbai-Delhi-Amritsar-Moscow-Birmingham route<\/A> from two decades ago:<\/P>\n
If you want tickets on the new route, you might want to move fast. The first ten flights have already sold out and subsequent flights are already heavily booked. <\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Air India has started international flights to Amritsar from Toronto and Birmingham on a new Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto route. Given that 50% of the passengers flying through Delhi’s airport are Punjabis, this should be an improvement in service for those passengers and help … Continue reading