Air India will launch direct, nonstop flights between London Stansted airport and the north west Indian city of Amritsar later this month.

The service will operate three times per week from October 31, and will be the first ever nonstop scheduled route between Stansted and India.

The route will be operated by a two-class B787 Dreamliner, with flight AI165 deparying Amritsar at 0310 on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, arriving into London at 0630.

The return leg AI166 will leave Stansted at 0805, landing back into Amritsar at 2150. Note that flight times for the return leg vary slightly on dates in November and December – the full schedule can be viewed on the Air India website.

The new route adds to Air India’s flights between Birmingham and Amritsar, which launched in February 2018.

Commenting on the news, London Stansted’s CEO, Ken O’Toole, said:

“It is fantastic news that there will be a direct non-stop connection to Amritsar, Punjab from London Stansted Airport with Air India. Stansted is ideally situated to serve the Asian community in North and East London and across the East of England so we are delighted that Air India has recognised the customer demand for Amritsar.

“Just last week, we published our Gateway to Growth report that highlighted the strong and growing demand for long-haul services across the region. Our ambition is to use our spare runway capacity to build our long-haul route network and improve the UK’s connectivity with the rest of the world at a time when availability is in short supply across south-east airports. The welcome arrival of Air India is another positive step towards that goal.

“India is an important and popular destination for UK residents, both for tourism and business interests. We look forward to working with Air India to make this route a great success and further improving the connectivity between London and India in the coming years.”

stanstedairport.com, airindia.in