Nov 30 2010, New Delhi: The government on Tuesday decided to soon resume the Amritsar-Toronto Air India flight, the discontinuation of which since October has caused a lot of problems to frequent non-resident Indian fliers to Punjab.
The assurance to restore the flight was given by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who headed a SAD-BJP delegation to lodge strong protest over the cancellation of the flight.
The national carrier had withdrawn the service as part of cost-cutting measures and on the ground that the airlines was making huge losses in the sector.
Badal later told reporters that millions of Sikh and Punjabi diaspora settled abroad invariably travel by this particular flight to and from Amritsar for religious tourism and pay obeisance at the Golden Temple, which is the highest spiritual seat of the Sikh religion.
Accompanied by Amritsar BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and other BJP and SAD MPs, Badal said it was evident from records that the particular flight was flying with full passenger capacity load and the discontinuation of the service caused a huge loss of revenue to the national carrier and also compromised on the viability of the Amritsar airport, which would lose about Rs 10 crore per year.
A memorandum submitted to Patel demanded that the Amritsar-London-Toronto flight be resumed immediately and new flights be introduced to Brimingham, New York and Vancouver to cater to the NRIs travelling to Amritsar from Europe, United Kingdom, United States and Canada.
Patel asked the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Air India Arvind Jadhav, especially called for the meeting, to expedite the resumption of the Amritsar-Toronto flight within a "definite and narrow time frame."
The Deputy Chief Minister announced that Bhatinda will have a new civilian airport facility that would be inaugurated on January 20 next year.
The Civil Aviation Minister also apprised Badal that all the requisite defense, environment and other clearances for setting up the Bathinda domestic terminal had already been secured.