London, September 18, 2008 (IANS)

A new airline, Bilga Air, will operate between Birmingham and Amritsar from Oct 9, when Air India temporarily suspends its flights on this sector. The announcement follows Air India's shock decision last week to pull the plug on its Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto route in order to protect its valuable slots at London's Heathrow Airport. Air India said it would now fly on the Amritsar-London-Toronto sector.

Named after a village in Punjab, Bilga Air's flights will be operated by Britain-based charter airline Monarch. Although its schedule will vary at different times of the year, its flights will mainly operate Sunday and Monday evenings. While some will have a technical stop for fuelling, more than 90 percent of flights will operate non-stop. The aircraft cabin will be a mixed configuration of economy and premium economy. Prices will start at £575 return.

Surinder Kanwar, director of Bilga Air, told the Birmingham Post newspaper: "Despite threats of an economic slowdown, we believe that Bilga Air has the ingredients to sustain a successful operation due to the ethnically diverse region in which Birmingham Airport sits and first class facility it offers."

Officials at Birmingham International Airport confirmed they had been told the Air India service - which links Amritsar via Birmingham to Toronto in Canada - will be suspended. The service, which began three years ago, touches Birmingham six times a week.

More than 100,000 people, mostly from the Indian community, have used it since the start of the year, with the airline's load factor - a measure of how full its planes are - at 85%, well above the average for a long haul service. Air India will start more direct flights from India to the US. As a result it is reducing the number of transit flights it operates at Heathrow, including services to New York.

"The airline will risk losing its Heathrow slots if it doesn't operate at least 80% of its allocated movements. Given their value, it needs to secure them," Peter Vella, Birmingham International Airport's business development director, said. "As a result, Air India will temporarily move its Birmingham flights to Heathrow until the summer 2009," he said.

Vella said Bilga Air's operation will help to fill a very popular market which exists in the Midlands. "I'm sure it will be greatly welcomed by the Midlands Asian community."

Jerry Blackett, chief executive of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the decision boosted the belief that Birmingham was the bridgeway for Europe into Asia. "I am not surprised really as it seems to me that the business communities that fly from Birmingham to India was there and it was only a matter of time before another airline came forward," he said.