Union Govt withholds clearance to flight from Vienna to Amritsar

Jalandhar, September 1
The Centre has withheld clearance to operators of a private airline for a direct Vienna-Amritsar flight for the past over five months. The flight will be of immense relief to hundreds of Punjab travellers from the European Union, who till now have no option but to land in Delhi. Incidentally, Amritsar is the fourth most sought-after travel destination in the world because of its religious importance and its place in the freedom struggle.
Alleging a distinct bias against the border state, Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu said he had been pursuing the case of the Vienna-based Comtel Air for the past many months, but to no avail. So much so that after all his efforts, he has just been able to get few minutes from the Director-General Civil Aviation (DGCA) in this context.
“I have also asked for time from the Civil Aviation Minister and will also be raising the issue in the ongoing session of Parliament. If need be, I am willing to sit in the well of the House to draw everybody’s attention,” he revealed.
It is unfortunate that civil airports were being promoted at the cost of local state-run ones. Traffic from profitable airports is diverted to the latter to benefit certain private players for obvious reasons, he alleged.
Citing the case of the Amritsar airport that was renovated at a cost of Rs 350 crore, he said instead of getting more flights, the existing ones were stopped on one pretext or the other. There were only 13 flights, six domestic and seven international, that use the airport at present, he added.
This is in contrast to the volume of traffic that is witnessed at the Delhi airport. Of the total arrivals and departures, 42 per cent were Punjabis and even out of this, majority were from three distrcts of Nawanshahr, Jalandhar, and Ludhiana, he revealed.
If all these passengers land at Amritsar, they will be saving money and time. Similarly, it would cut the congestion at the Delhi airport by half. This would not only give a boost to the economy of the border state but also free slots at the Delhi airport for more international flights, he said. The clearance should be granted to Comtel Air since passengers on this flight would have the option to fly to Takht Hazoor Sahib at Nanded free of cost, he added.
Sidhu said they were demanding no additional favours but impressing on the need for having a single-window clearance for submission of documents, special package for flight operators who want to fly to Amritsar.

n Amritsar is the fourth most-sought-after travel destination in the worldn The flight would have been of immense relief to hundreds of Punjab travellers from the EU, who till now have no option but to land in Delhin Despite spending Rs 350 crore on the renovation of Amritsar airport, only 13 flights, six domestic and seven international, are operating from the airportn 42 per cent passengers arriving in Delhi are Punjabis and a majority of them are from Nawanshahr, Jalandhar and Ludhiana