Relief for Punjabi diaspora: Amritsar-Birmingham direct flight resumes

Sold out: The flight will resume after a gap of eight years.

In what will come as a relief to the Punjabi diaspora living in the United Kingdom, Air India will resume its direct flight from Amritsar to Birmingham on Tuesday after a gap of eight years.

The biweekly flight will operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays and return from Birmingham on Wednesdays and Fridays. (HT)

The biweekly flight will operate on Tuesdays and Thursdays and return from Birmingham on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Rajya Sabha member Shwait Malik disclosed this in a press release here. Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment Vijay Sampla, along with Shwait Malik, will flag off the flight. All tickets have been sold out.

He thanked the minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha, who he said had announced to restart the flight in 2016. Malik said the aircraft has 256 seats, of which 18 are business class.

The flight will take off from Amritsar at 1:55pm (IST) and land at the Birmingham airport at 5:15pm (BST). It will depart from the Birmingham airport at 6:45pm (BST) and land at the Amritsar airport at 7:45am (IST).

The direct flight was discontinued during the Congress-led UPA government in 2010 and it would go via Delhi.