Air travelers from Punjab especially International passengers traveling from Amritsar via Delhi are in for a big jolt as the National carrier Air India has suspended booking of its popular early morning Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi flight from July 12 till September 30, 2018. There is no reason given by Air India on its website, but bookings for the flight is not available anymore. Last week, the airlines also suspended booking for its Chandigarh-Bangkok flight to make the aircraft available for Haj flights.
This decision is going to create a lot of difficulties for the early morning travelers. International passengers reaching Delhi at night on Air India or its partner airlines, including, Lufthansa, Air Canada connect on this AI453 flight to reach Amritsar. On the return flight AI454 from Amritsar to Delhi, passengers connect to Europe and other international flights by departing from Amritsar early in the morning. The morning Air India flight takes off from Delhi at 0500 hrs and reaches Amritsar at 0615 hrs. It departs from Amritsar at 0650 hrs and reaches Delhi at 0755 hrs.
Amritsar Vikas Manch Overseas Secretary and Fly Amritsar Initiative Convenor Sameep Singh Gumtala said the manch has raised the issue in a letter and on social media by tweeting to Minister of State Vijay Sampla, BJP Punjab President and Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik and Amritsar Lok Sabha MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla. ”We appeal to these leaders to intervene in this matter and convey demands to Air India so that this flight is not suspended by the airline. We request them to ask Air India to continue with the flight and the airline could use the aircraft from other sectors instead of this high passenger occupancy flight.”
He said Punjabis are always made to suffer by Air India under such circumstances. Instead of suspending flights from other airports that operate in a loss and low in occupancy, Air India has suspended Amritsar flight which is carrying more than 90 per cent load on each flight. In the past these leaders said that more Air India flights will be started from Amritsar including London but instead the airline is suspending these successful flights.
The cancellation of this flight will adversely affect the Punjabi community settled in Europe, North American and other Countries. Punjabis coming or going to domestic and international destinations from Amritsar will suffer a lot and face inconvenience and loss of time and money. In the past also Air India has cancelled only flights from Amritsar during strikes by its staff or cutting down its losses.
