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Birmingham Airport backs plea for more Amritsar flights after appeal from Sikh families

Birmingham Airport is being urged to reinstate lost flights to support Punjab-heritage residents Birmingham Airport chiefs have pledged to do all it can to restore more flights to Amritsar in India to end the misery for local Sikh and Punjabi families and business leaders after MPs pleaded their case. The region's twelve MPs, led by Birmingham Edgbaston 's Preet Kaur Gill, united to write to airport chiefs to press them to help reinstate 'lost flights'.
They said the demise of the direct services - cut from six a week to just one - was affecting families and businesses across the region, which is home to the 130,000 strong Sikh and Punjabi diaspora. They mostly have to head to London airports instead, said the letter from regional MPs. Today airport chiefs said they were doing all they could to support extra flights, but two major airlines are currently hit by spare parts issues and fleet shortages. They are also in discussion with a new airline intending to operate out of Birmingham to north India, they said. Tom Screen, the airport's aviation director, also urged the MPs to also share their concerns with Air India, who hold the key to increasing flight frequency. The airline has said it plans to increase the frequency of flights from one a week back up to six, but "currently have issues with getting enough spare parts for their Boeing 787 fleet, meaning that a number of these aircraft are currently grounded," said Mr Screen in response to the MPs' letter.
Qatar Airways is also facing issues around resuming its Doha services, which normally have excellent connectivity to India, he said. They have failed to restart after the pandemic due to fleet shortages, with up to 23 of their A350-900 aircraft grounded following a dispute with Airbus, he said.
The airport is also in discussion with a new start up airline, Hans Airways, being set up specifically to serve the Birmingham-North India market, he said. They anticipate starting operations in August or September.