Air India on Tuesday launched a direct flight from Amritsar to Birmingham. The flight will operate twice-a-week on Tuesday and Thursday with Boeing 787 aircraft. According to an Air India official, this is the first direct flight to be operated by any airline between Punjab and the UK.

The flight AI 117 will take off from Delhi at 11.20 am and reach Amritsar at 12.25 pm. The flight will then depart from Amritsar at 1.55 pm and reach Birmingham at 5.15 pm local time, according to Air India in a statement. The return flight AI 118 will take off from Birmingham at 6.45 pm and reach Amritsar the following day at 7.45 am. For its onward journey to Delhi, the flight will leave from Amritsar at 9.15 am and arrive in Delhi at 10.30 am, the statement added.

The inaugural flight was flagged off from Amritsar by Union minister Vijay Sampla, MPs Shwait Malik and Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Director- Commercial, Air India Pankaj Srivastava.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates