Amritsar-Toronto flight to resume soon

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The national carrier had withdrawn the service as part of cost-cutting measures and on the ground that the airlines was making huge losses in the sector.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.
30/11/10 ExpressIndia

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Categories: Air India - International Dec 2010, Air India Dec 2010, Foreign Dec 2010