Ludhiana: Less than a fortnight after a private airline started two flights from Ludhiana district’s Halwara airport, it released the schedule for connecting flights with various other cities of the country on Wednesday.Whereas the airline has issued “seamless” domestic connectivity to Ludhiana (Halwara) via Delhi to 23 domestic cities, it is set to connect more than 20 international destinations through connecting flights.The schedule issued by the private airline suggests that not only will the passengers be able to travel to various domestic cities of the country through connecting flights after taking a flight from Halwara to Delhi, but they will be able to reach Ludhiana from various parts of the country after taking a connecting flight to Halwara from Delhi. Similarly, international passengers will also be able to travel abroad after taking a flight from Ludhiana to Delhi and then taking a connecting flight, and vice versa.The biggest advantage of the schedules is that residents will no longer have to take flights abroad or to domestic cities after travelling to Mohali or Amritsar airports.The document issued by the private airline suggests that passengers can now travel from major international destinations — including cities in the APAC (Asia Pacific) countries, GMEA (Gulf, Middle East and Africa) region, UK and Europe, USA and Canada — after taking a flight from Halwara to Delhi and taking connecting flights of the same private airline. Among the major cities of APAC where passengers can travel using connecting flights are Bangkok, Colombo, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Phuket, and Singapore, whereas in GMEA countries, the passengers can travel to Doha, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh and in UK and Europe, one can travel to London, Birmingham, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Milan, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Zurich.Among the major places where one can travel using connecting flights from Delhi are San Francisco, Toronto.As per the document issued by the private airline, among the cities within the country where one can travel through connecting flights after taking a flight from Ludhiana to Delhi are Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Chennai, Dehradun, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune, Rajkot, Raipur, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Vadodara, Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam. It suggests that passengers can take a connecting flight from Delhi to Halwara after travelling by air from these cities as well.As the private airline issued information about the connecting flights, one such passenger who travelled to Pune from Ludhiana after taking a flight from Halwara to Delhi and to Pune shared his good experience about the flights.Ankur Mahajan, a chartered accountant and a resident of Kitchlu Nagar, said, “I travelled to Pune recently and reached there just in five hours. I took an early morning flight (7:55 am) from Ludhiana and then took a connecting flight from Delhi. This is the best feeling ever to fly from your own city to other parts of India. Nothing can match it. Even travelling from Ludhiana is far more economical as compared with Chandigarh. I checked and found that ticket prices from Chandigarh were almost 60% to 100% higher. I even have a return flight from Pune to Ludhiana via Delhi. People of Ludhiana should prefer travel from Halwara Airport as much as possible. This will eventually strengthen the case for starting of more flights from Ludhiana.”Many residents said the connection time of the flight for international destinations was not very long.Mridula Jain, a city-based industrialist, said that it is a good step to provide connecting flight options to passengers travelling to other cities within the country and abroad. She added that connection time from Delhi was not very long and was a few hours for flights to international destinations like Paris, Milan, Singapore, London, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Milan.Can be added as box:Some of the domestic city flights related information:Ahmedabad (AMD) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from Ahmedabad at 9:30 am and arrive in Delhi at 11:20 am. After a layover of 1 hour 35 minutes, board flight for Halwara at 12:55 pm, arriving in Halwara at 2:10 pm.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 2:40 pm on flight and arrive in Delhi at 3:55 pm. After a 45-minute layover, board flight to Ahmedabad at 4:40 pm, reaching Ahmedabad at 6:20 pm.Mumbai (BOM) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from Mumbai at 9:30 am on flight and arrive in Delhi at 11:50 am. After a 1-hour 5-minute layover, board flight to Halwara at 12:55 pm, arriving in Halwara at 2:10 pm.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 7:55 am on flight and arrive in Delhi at 9:10 am. After a 50-minute layover, board flight to Mumbai at 10:00 am, reaching Mumbai at 12:25 pm.Bengaluru (BLR) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from Bengaluru at 9:00 am on flight and arrive in Delhi at 12:00 noon. After a 55-minute layover, board flight to Halwara at 12:55 pm, arriving in Halwara at 2:10 pm.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 7:55 am on flight and arrive in Delhi at 9:10 am. After a 1-hour 20-minute layover, board flight to Bengaluru at 10:30 am, reaching Bengaluru at 1:20 pm.Chennai (MAA) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from Chennai at 8:05 am on flight and arrive in Delhi at 11:05 am. After a 1-hour 50-minute layover, board flight to Halwara at 12:55 pm, arriving in Halwara at 2:10 pm.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 7:55 am on flight and arrive in Delhi at 9:10 am. After a 50-minute layover, board flight to Chennai at 10:00 am, reaching Chennai at 12:45 pm.Kolkata (CCU) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from Kolkata at 8:30 am on flight and arrive in Delhi at 11:10 am. After a 1-hour 45-minute layover, board flight to Halwara at 12:55 pm, arriving in Halwara at 2:10 pm.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 2:40 pm on flight and arrive in Delhi at 3:55 pm. After a 2-hour 5-minute layover, board flight to Kolkata at 6:00 pm, reaching Kolkata at 8:20 pm.International flights:Bangkok (BKK) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from Bangkok at 7:30 am and arrive in Delhi at 10:25 am. After a 2-hour 30-minute layover, board the flight from Delhi to Halwara at 12:55 pm.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 7:55 am and connect to the 11:00 am flight from Delhi to Bangkok.Singapore (SIN) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from Singapore at 11:00 pm and arrive in Delhi at 2:30 am. After a 3-hour 25-minute layover, board the flight from Delhi to Halwara at 5:55 am.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 7:55 am and connect to the 1:10 pm flight from Delhi to Singapore.Dubai (DXB) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from Dubai at 8:40 pm and arrive in Delhi at 1:40 am. After a 4-hour 15-minute layover, board the flight from Delhi to Halwara at 5:55 am.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 2:40 pm and connect to the 8:30 pm flight from Delhi to Dubai.London (LHR) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from London at 8:35 pm and arrive in Delhi at 11:00 am. After a 1-hour 55-minute layover, board the flight from Delhi to Halwara at 12:55 pm, arriving in Halwara thereafter.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 7:55 am and connect to the 1:00 pm flight from Delhi to London.San Francisco (SFO) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from San Francisco at 8:45 pm (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) and arrive in Delhi at 5:45 am (two days later). After a 7-hour 10-minute layover, board the flight from Delhi to Halwara at 12:55 pm.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 7:55 am and connect to the 10:50 am flight from Delhi to San Francisco (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday).Toronto (YYZ) – HalwaraOutbound Journey:Depart from Toronto at 12:35 am (Monday, Thursday and Saturday) and arrive in Delhi at 2:05 am. After a 3-hour 50-minute layover, board the flight from Delhi to Halwara at 5:55 am.Return Journey:Depart from Halwara at 7:55 am and connect to the 12:00 noon flight from Delhi to Toronto (Wednesday, Friday and Sunday).All connecting flights are of private airlines (Air India).
