 |
Birmingham Airport Aviation Development Director William Pearson (left) receiving the commemorative
plaque from the Shri 108 Sant Sarwan Dass charitable trust, with Vishwanath Panyam, Air India station
manager at Birmingham Airport (centre right) |
Air India and Birmingham Airport are celebrating after carrying 50,000 passengers
on board over 200 Boeing 787 "dreamliner" flights between Birmingham and India,
since launching in August last year
To celebrate its success in the first six months, leaders of the local Sikh community
presented Birmingham Airport with a commemorative plaque to thank the team for
launching the flights last year and reconnecting Birmingham with Delhi and Amritsar;
an important spiritual centre for the Sikh faith
Speaking at a ceremony held at Birmingham Airport last week, the Airport’s Aviation
Development Director, William Pearson, who received the plaque on behalf of the
airport, said: "The Midlands has the second largest Asian community in the UK, so
it’s no surprise that the airline has carried its first 50,000 passengers and experienced
over 80% load factors on the route since launching in August 2013
"The four times a week service to Delhi and Amritsar, using the brand new Boeing 787-8
"dreamliner" aircraft, with two configurations of business and economy class isn’t just
ideal for those visiting friends and relatives, but also offers corporate travellers
connections across India, Asia, Europe and North America from Delhi. Air India will soon
be part of Star Alliance which gives passengers a choice of world-wide connections"
Shri 108 Sant Sarwan Dass Charity trustee Nirmal Dass presented the plaque to the
Airport. He said: "This service is incredibly important to the entire Asian community
across the region. We’d like to say a big thank you to Air India and Birmingham
Airport for providing these direct links to Delhi and Amritsar from our local airport"
Vishwanath Panyam, Air India station manager at Birmingham Airport, added:
"Reaching this impressive milestone in just six months clearly demonstrates the
strong demand that exists for this service. It has proven to be tremendously popular
amongst the region’s Asian community, for business and leisure passengers alike!
The service operates each Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, arriving from
Amritsar and Delhi into Birmingham at 1700 hours and departing to Delhi and Amritsar
from Birmingham at 2030 hours. The 256 seat B787-8 series aircraft has a split cabin,
consisting of 18 business class and 238 economy seats. Birmingham is only the second
UK airport to operate dedicated Boeing 787 scheduled services
Passengers wanting to fly business or economy class with Air India can do
so with very attractive fares from Birmingham. Tickets can be booked at
 |
| Wednesday 19 February 2014 |
