As the international air travel market continues to recover amid the COVID-19 pandemic in India, Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar has now once again started to recover its international network.
Within a month, the airport has recovered its direct connectivity with Europe, with the Indian national carrier, Air India resuming its non-stop flights between Amritsar and London & Birmingham in the UK as well as Rome in Italy.
Air India in December 2020 had to suspend both Amritsar-London/Birmingham routes due to several travel restrictions imposed in both the countries, while the Rome route was also suspended in late April 2021 due to restrictions imposed in Italy.
According to the schedule available from Air India website, all these destinations are currently will be served once-weekly until the end of Summer Schedule 2021. It could be expected that the airline may continue to operate all these routes to Europe in Winter Schedule 2021-22 as well.
The resumption of all these scheduled flights to major cities of Europe will now help to bring a boost to the economy of the city as well as various industries in Punjab, including, tourism, agriculture, etc.
Currently, Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar is the only airport in India to have non-stop flights to Birmingham in the UK as well as Rome in the Italy.
UAE Market On The Rise
The United Arab Emirates market of Amritsar has now once again started to put itself on the upward trajectory.
The Indian Low-Cost Carriers, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India Express and Full-Service Carrier, Air India has already resumed their non-stop flights between Amritsar and Dubai, Sharjah & Abu Dhabi in the UAE.
Due to the high demand, Air India has now even deployed its 256- seater state-of-the-art Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on Amritsar-Dubai route. In addition to this, the airline has also now resumed its once-weekly non-stop flights between Amritsar and Abu Dhabi.
On the other hand, Air India’s low-cost subsidiary, Air India Express has now also scheduled to operate twice-weekly non-stop flights between Amritsar and Sharjah, in addition to its non-stop Amritsar-Dubai flights.
To benefit travellers from Punjab to UAE, Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar has Rapid PCR testing facility available at the premises for the passengers.
Currently Amritsar is directly connected with over 7 international destinations, namely, Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Doha, London, Birmingham and Rome.
As the international borders across the globe reopen in a safe manner in the near future and the international travel demand recovers, it could be expected that Amritsar may recover its pre-pandemic international traffic levels by late 2022.
