By admin, Published on December 15th, 2023 in News
December 12, 2023: Malaysia Airlines, in response to the overwhelming positive reception since commencing operations to Punjab’s biggest and busiest Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport Amritsar, announces the doubling of its non-stop flights from 2x-weekly to 4x-weekly between Kuala Lumpur and Amritsar.
Sameep Singh Gumtala, Global Convener and Yogesh Kamra Convener (India) of the FlyAmritsar Initiative, jointly shared insights on this development, highlighting the aim to facilitate seamless travel for passengers connecting to Australia, New Zealand and other Southeast Asian countries.
Effective January 15, 2024, the airline will also operate flights to Amritsar every Monday and Friday of the week, in addition to the current flights operating on Wednesday and Saturday. The increase in frequency to four flights a week by the airline showcases a strategic move to expand its presence and capture a larger share of Punjab’s diaspora traffic, including the Australia market, said Gumtala.
The new flights, operating every Monday and Friday from Kuala Lumpur, will depart at 11 pm and arrive at Amritsar at 2:20 am the next day. The return flight will operate on every Tuesday and Saturday, departing at 3:20 am from Amritsar and arriving at 11:45 am in Kuala Lumpur. The current schedule of other two flights remains the same departing Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday & Saturday at 6:50 pm and arrive Amritsar at 10:30pm. The return flight then leaves Amritsar on the same day at 11:25 pm arriving next day in Malaysia at 7:30 am.
Kamra enthusiastically highlighted the Airport’s enhanced connectivity, revealing that Amritsar also enjoys services from two other Malaysian airlines as well, including, Air Asia X with 4x-weekly flights and Batik Air with 2x-weekly flights. This brings the total monthly seat capacity between Amritsar and Kuala Lumpur to an impressive 21,000 seats. Furthermore, Scoot, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, also operates five weekly flights to Singapore, fostering connections to Australia and various other countries, totaling 13,400 seats per month.
This new strategic timing by Malaysia Airline on its 2 additional flights from January 15 also allows convenient connections for passengers traveling to Amritsar from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Auckland as well as Southeast Asian cities such as Bangkok, Phuket, Manila, Hong Kong, Bali, etc., reducing travel time to only 16-17 hours and 10-12 hours, respectively.
Ravreet Singh, an aviation blogger and analyst for the FlyAmritsar Initiative, travelled on Malaysia Airlines inaugural flight from Amritsar. During his visit, Singh had productive meetings with the airline Regional Manager Amit Mehta at the Amritsar Airport, as well as Malaysia Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer Derenish Aresandiran, and Global Sales Head Syazwan Ahmad Sabri, at Kuala Lumpur Int’l Airport.
Discussions focused on the Amritsar market and explored opportunities for expanding flight offerings. Singh expressed satisfaction that, within just a month of launching operations from Amritsar, the airline has already committed to adding more flights to meet the growing demand. It is now up to Punjabis and its diaspora to prefer flying in directly to Amritsar instead of Delhi to support all these flights and make them successful.
Leave a Reply