Air India’s decision to deploy larger Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on its direct Amritsar-London Gatwick and Amritsar-Birmingham services has been welcomed by the FlyAmritsar Initiative, which described the move as a significant boost to passenger capacity on the busy Punjab-United Kingdom sector.
In a press release, the aviation advocacy group said the 344-seat Boeing 777-300ER has replaced the 256-seat Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on both routes. The upgraded aircraft offers 305 Economy Class seats, 35 Business Class seats and four First Class seats, increasing capacity by 88 seats per flight while introducing First Class on the direct Amritsar-UK services. Both routes continue to operate three times a week.
FlyAmritsar Initiative Global Convener Sameep Singh Gumtala said the additional capacity would particularly benefit passengers during peak travel seasons, when direct flights between Punjab and the UK often experience high demand, limited seat availability and increased fares.
At the same time, Gumtala pointed out that the deployment represents a capacity enhancement using Air India’s legacy Boeing 777 fleet rather than newly delivered or fully retrofitted aircraft. He said passengers would expect the aircraft to be clean, well-maintained and equipped with fully functional seats, inflight entertainment systems and cabin facilities. He expressed hope that Air India would eventually assign newer or fully refurbished aircraft to the Amritsar routes as its fleet modernisation programme progresses.
The FlyAmritsar Initiative also urged Air India to establish codeshare or interline partnerships with airlines operating from London Gatwick and Birmingham. According to the organisation, such arrangements would enable passengers travelling from Amritsar to book seamless onward connections to destinations across the UK, Europe and other international markets on a single itinerary.
Gumtala said Air India has recently expanded similar partnerships with several international carriers and argued that extending these benefits to the Amritsar routes would improve passenger convenience while strengthening the commercial viability of the services. He added that higher passenger traffic on direct Amritsar flights would also reinforce the case for increased frequencies and encourage other international airlines to consider launching operations from the city.
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