 Paul Kehoe CEO of Birmingham Airport and Mike Whitby leader of
Paul Kehoe CEO of Birmingham Airport and Mike Whitby leader of Birmingham City Council with representives of the region's business 
community and supporters of the Fly India campaign 
.
A 20,000 signature petition is today being delivered to the Indian Government’s 
Minister for Civil Aviation in Delhi to show the strong demand in the Midlands for 
the reintroduction of direct non-stop flights between Birmingham and India. 
However, the two bosses leading the campaign say that there’s still much more 
that can be done and are urging the region’s business and Asian communities to 
get behind their "Fly India" campaign to help them reinstate direct non-stop services
.
Councillor Mike Whitby, leader of Birmingham City Council and organiser of the 
initial petition delivered today, explains, “The response received following the 
launch of my petition last October has been tremendous, with more than 20,000 
signatures already received and the petition is now en route to India. 
Nevertheless, I am now working with the Airport to give the Fly India campaign 
another push and gain even more support so that we can demonstrate, with 
little doubt, the overwhelming demand for direct flights 
between Birmingham and India"
.
“The potential economical, social and cultural benefits to be reaped if these 
flights were in place would be significant and would be a real demonstration of 
the natural links that exist between Birmingham, the Midlands and India. It is 
also key to our status as a truly Global City in developing our ever-growing ties 
with the emerging markets in India and the wider sub-continent"
.
“What we need now is for the Indian community and businesses to get behind 
this campaign to ensure we send a powerful message to those airlines that are 
able to provide direct flights, such as Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher“
.
 The Midlands Asian market speaks for itself. There are 1.3m Indian people living
The Midlands Asian market speaks for itself. There are 1.3m Indian people living in England and the city of Birmingham alone has five times as many Indians as the 
city of Manchester. Outside of London, the West Midlands has more Indians living 
within it than any other region in England, with 15% of England’s total, some 
200,000 people
.
Paul Kehoe, CEO of Birmingham Airport adds, “I’ve been the Chief Executive of 
the Airport now for over a year and I still find it incredible that although there 
are around 350,000 people of Indian origin living in the one hour catchment 
of the Airport, there hasn’t been a direct flight to India since October 2008"
.
“To secure its slots at Heathrow, Air India sadly moved its Delhi-Amritsar
-Birmingham-Toronto in 2008 to the capital. During its three years at 
Birmingham however, demand was never a problem. In fact, in the last year 
of operation alone it carried 100,000 people between Amritsar, Delhi, 
Birmingham and Toronto and its load factors were often more than 85% full
.
“We therefore want to give the power back to the community by asking them 
to support our campaign and give us the evidence so we can show prospective 
airlines and the Indian authorities that there’s a compelling case – both 
economic and social – for services to be reintroduced.”
.
 To support the campaign please go to -
To support the campaign please go to - and sign the petition and make a comment or
become a fan of the Fly India facebook page at -
.
Thursday 25 March 2010