Air India has introduced a non-stop flight on Tuesday from New Delhi to Amritsar in Punjab and Amritsar to Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
The inaugural flight was flagged off from Amritsar airport by Vijay Sampla the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in the presence of other dignitaries including Pankaj Srivastava the Director of Air India, Shwait Malik and Gurjeet Singh Aujla Member of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively.
Later, a ceremonial cake was also cut on the occasion.
The direct flight is scheduled to operate twice in each week on Tuesday and Thursday on the Delhi- Amritsar-Birmingham-Amritsar-Delhi route.
The Dreamliner aircraft AI 117 will take off from the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi at 11:20 am and is scheduled to reach Amritsar at 12:25 am.
After a break, the flight will then depart from Amritsar at 1:55 pm and is scheduled to reach Birmingham at 5:15 pm.
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The return flight will take off from Birmingham at 6:45 pm and reach Amritsar the next day at 7:45 am. After a brief break, the flight will depart for Amritsar at 9:15 am and will arrive at Delhi at 10:30 am.
Air India said to ANI, " It expects the new flight to cater to the needs of the ethnic communities by ensuring a hassle-free travel to the city of Golden Temple and will also help to enhance tourism and trade relations in general between the two countries in general".