Raja Sansi International Airport
Raja Sansi International Airport is 11 km north-west from the city of Amritsar, India. It has flights operating from Singapore, Birmingham, Tashkent, Sharjah, Toronto, Ashgabat, Kabul and Bratislava, using Uzbekistan Airways, Turkmenistan Airlines, Air India, Air Slovakia, Singapore Airlines, Indian Airlines and Afghan Airlines which is about 50 flights a week. It also has 17 domestic flights to Delhi by a daily flight by Air Deccan, 4 weekly Air India flights and 5 weekly Indian Airlines flights. It also has a weekly charter flight from Birmingham and London Gatwick airport.
Amritsar remains the cultural and tourist capital of Punjab, and the demand for a fully operational international airport has been growing for some time now. There has been a strong movement amongst the Punjabi community in India and abroad to upgrade the airport so that major carriers would consider flying there.
Air India will begin services from Amitsar to Toronto via Brimingham, making the the trip from North America to Amritsar less than 18 hours for the first time in history.
American carrier United Airlines introduced a Chicago-Delhi daily flight via Amritsar in May of 2001 that was suppose to commence in October of that year. However, September 11th 2001 changed the face of American aviation and United canceled the service a month before it was suppose to begin.
Major Carriers that have expressed interest in operating from Amritsar in the near future include Virgin Atlantic, Gulf Air, Malaysia Airlines, Thai Air, and Brirish Airways. However, many carriers are turned off from flying to Amritsar since it is considered a hard route to market and the aging airport lacks some of the basic international facilities.
Today, the only major carriers that operate at Amritsar are Indian Airlines, Air India and Singapore Airlines.
The airport is in the middle of no-where, when using the by-pass road from Amritsar city.