Jalandhar : The number of Punjabis taking flights abroad has almost doubled and the rush at the departure counters of the IGI Airport has become a perpetual issue. These days, 1,000 tickets per day for international flights are being issued from Jalandhar alone and almost the same number from the rest of Punjab. On an average, 400 travellers are using the Delhi airport-bound Punjab Roadways buses on a daily basis. Nearly 15-20 Indo-Canadian buses with a capacity to seat 40 passengers are daily plying to the IGIA from Punjab. In addition to this, there are many foreign travellers, especially the students, who are being dropped to the airport using taxi services as well.

Figures startling

 

• 1,000 tickets per day for international flights are being issued from Jalandhar
• 400 travellers are using the Delhi airport-bound Punjab Roadways buses daily

The airport in Punjab have flights to England, Australia and Singapore but there are no direct flights to Canada or Europe, which are more common destinations for students as well as the tourists from the state. For US-bound travellers from Punjab, there are two-stop flights from Amritsar which go via the IGIA.

There is an increasing demand that more international flights be started from the Amritsar and Mohali airports. President of the North American Punjabi Association Satnam Singh Chahal said, “There are so many flyers from Punjab to the US that I can say it with conviction that thrice a week direct flights will go packed, if this service gets started. There are many elderly like me who think twice about the hassles that we face in air travel from San Francisco to Jalandhar. We need to stand in the queue for departures from here for at least four hours to get the turn for all clearances, which becomes so tiring. While we come here from the US, the travel time by air is less than the time consumed in reaching Jalandhar from Delhi airport as we have to wait for seven hours to catch a domestic flight to Amritsar and then travel by road to Jalandhar.”

35% at IGIA from state

Of the total air travellers from the Delhi airport, 35 per cent are from Punjab. —Khilandeep Singh, Travel agent

Ram Ghai and Kamal Bhumla, who runs an air ticketing business in Jalandhar, said, “The rush of foreign travellers, including students and tourists, has increased manifold in the recent past, especially due to the Covid build-up.”

Khilandeep Singh, who too is into the same business in Ludhiana, said, “Of the total air travellers from the Delhi airport, 35 per cent are from Punjab. When I travelled abroad from Delhi last month, it took me 2.5 hours to reach my airlines terminal from the Delhi airport gate. There are many who say that 3.5 hours wait is common these days.”

The issue was put up strongly by the NRIs before the NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal at the ‘NRI Punjabiyan naal milni’ event held in Jalandhar on Friday. Maninder Gill, Canadian NRI, had said, “The rush at the departure counters is so much that we have to stand in queue at the Delhi airport for over four hours. Sometimes, the crowd gets tizzy due to congestion and it becomes difficult for the airport staff to handle them. We have urged the minister to take up the matter with the Union Civil Aviation Ministry to get this problem sorted out by starting direct flights to Canada from Amritsar and Mohali too,” he said.