Pressure for return of direct India flights from Birmingham

Civic leaders in Birmingham are to try to persuade India to change its protectionist policies after its national carrier confirmed that it had no plans to re-establish direct flights from the city.
Air India, which used to operate a service to the north Indian city of Amritsar, had always said it planned to return to Birmingham International Airport this year after the route was suspended last September.
But it recently emerged Air India has abandoned the plan to return, meaning there is now no direct link from the region to the sub-continent.
Local firm Bilga Air announced it would be starting some routes to take the slack shortly after Air India pulled out. But the flights never materialised, leaving Birmingham without a link to Amritsar.
The airport and Birmingham Chamber of Commerce both said Indian anti-competition laws were stopping other firms from coming in and taking up what is a vitally important link for the people and businesses in the city.
A spokesman for the airport said: “We were expecting them to return, but they have moved their flights from here down to Heathrow, and that’s to our detriment.”
He added he had been speaking to Indian airline Jet about the possibility of replacing Air India, but said: “Initially what we were told by Jet is they were stopped from flying into Birmingham by the Indian government, which wanted to keep it free for Indian Air.
“The other thing is while there’s definitely an opportunity here for other Indian air firms, many are actually retrenching because they overestimated the Indian market.
“The other carriers that we have that fly indirectly have been taking full advantage of the fact that Air India have left, and all of their loads have gone up.”
He said he was confident that a deal could be done to keep the Birmingham-India link open.
09/03/09 Tom Scotney/Birmingham Post, UK

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Categories: Airports Mar 2009, Foreign Mar 2009