London: Lobbyists battling for direct flights between Heathrow and Amritsar have leapt on news that a direct flight will be introduced one day a week under the Vande Bharat Mission starting Monday 24th August.
From August 24 till September-end, Air India
will operate Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) direct flights once a week between Sri
Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport, Amritsar and London Heathrow. When
India started Vande Bharat Mission flights on May 6 to bring back Indian
citizens, flights to Punjab went via Delhi.
Now,
under VBM phase 5/6, flights will leave London at 9.45am on Mondays and reach
Amritsar at 10.25pm that evening. Flights will then depart from Amritsar at
2.40pm on Tuesdays and reach Heathrow at 7pm the same day. On the remaining
days, passengers will have to travel via Delhi.
“High demand for direct repatriation flights
between Punjab and the UK during the lockdown is evidence that a flight between
Amritsar and Heathrow is needed permanently,” said Sameep Singh Gumtala, global
convener, FlyAmritsar Initiative and overseas secretary of Amritsar Vikas Manch
(AVM).
“This is a welcome step that should have been
taken earlier. It will save many hours of time for people to reach Punjab,” he
said, adding, “We are thankful to civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri
and Air India and request them to continue to operate the flights to Heathrow
after resumption of regular international commercial flights to India.”
Dr. Gurdeep Kaur
Associate Professor
Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College
University of Delhi
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