Air India resumes Amritsar-Rome direct flights, passengers hail move

The resumption of Air India's direct flight between Amritsar and Rome on Wednesday came as a relief to many people in Amritsar who were delaying their travels plans.

Sukhman Kaur, who was waiting to visit her father living in Italy, thanked the Central government for the move.

"I was waiting to visit my father for a long time. My brother is young and taking connecting flights was very tough. Also, the direct fight is economically more affordable as passengers were expected to pay very high fares to travel via other countries, as the fights were costly and we have to also pay for quarantine requirements during the transit," said Kaur.

Another traveller Amanjit Singh also hailed the government's move and said the transit flight, either regular or charted were, were very costly.

"This is a very big relief for people who were stranded in India since last April. There was an option to take a connecting flight, but it was very costly. Also, a few hours of the journey between Italy and India took days as travellers had to quarantine in during the stary on transit," he said.

After the resumption of the direct flight between Amritsar and Rome, Amritsar's Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport is now connected with three European cities under the Vande Bharat mission, including London and Birmingham.

Talking about the flight schedule, Vipin Kant Seth, Director of Amritsar Airport, said the flight will depart for Rome from Amritsar and will return from Rome on Friday.

"As per the schedule, the flight will take off from Amritsar at 3.55 pm on Wednesday and reach Rome the same day. It will return the next day and reach Amritsar on Friday morning at 5.35 am. A total of 230 passengers took the first flight from Amritsar to Rome on Wednesday. We are expecting the traffic to increase," Seth added.