Chandigarh: India is Canada’s fourth largest international air travel market, with the highest number of people of Punjabi origin travelling. But in the agreement that the Canadian government has made, Punjab and Chandigarh have been sidelined. Although SGPC to CM Mann and AAP MP Vikramjit Sahni were demanding that direct flights from Canada be run from Amritsar, the agreement signed recently agreed to start direct flights to Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. These flights will go directly to Toronto, Montreal, Edminton, Vancouver.
Canadian Minister Omar Alghabra says the agreement is a positive development between the two countries. Due to the Indo-Canada Air Transport Agreement, it was not possible for various airline companies to start direct flights to Punjab, due to which the demand of those coming to Punjab was constantly pending.
Meanwhile, Royal Canada Airlines President Waseem Javed had announced that there are plans to start flights to the Middle East soon. For this, the company is contacting the Airport Authority of Punjab. Initially, there were plans to run flights from Toronto to Amritsar, Chandigarh and Lahore in Pakistan.
In future, under this plan, a blueprint was being prepared to start chartered flights to Punjab from major cities of Canada including Vancouver, but the agreement reached two days ago has ruined. This has caused disappointment among Punjabis. There is anger in Canada and Punjab about this.
“Punjabis and SGPC have been demanding to start flights from Amritsar to Canada for a long time, but it is being ignored which is an insult to Guru Nagri Sri Amritsar,” the SGPC tweeted. The SGPC, in its budget session on March 30, 2022, had passed a resolution sending it to the Government of India to start a direct flight from Canada to Amritsar.