Are you ready to fly to Toronto from Amritsar? Come April 9 and you will have the much sought after option of flying direct to Toronto from Amritsar. Neos, a private airline that already operates a weekly Amritsar-Milan service, has now decided to extend its wings for Punjabi Diaspora by facilitating their direct flight to their choicest destination, Toronto in Ontario, Canada.
Initially, the Italian air carrier which has been in operations since 2001, has in recognition of strong and ever growing demand of Punjabi Diaspora for direct connectivity of their holy city of Amritsar with North America, has decided to introduce once a week direct flight from Amritsar to Toronto via Milan and vice versa.
The airline has a modern fleet. The current NEOS fleet is composed of four Boeing 737-800W (Winglet), four Boeing 737-8 and six Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner respectively holding 186 single class seats in single and 359 seats in two distinct classes (Economy that 36 seats are Economy Extra Plus, Premium). The entire fleet is equipped with winglets, vertical extensions on the wings’ tips. They reduce the turbulence that is generated by the air and hence they improve the aerodynamic efficiency, with consequent reduction in fuel consumption and increase in flight autonomy. The aircrafts are also authorized for low visibility landing of CAT 3A (B737-800), flights ETOPS at 120 minutes (B737-800), says the official web site of the airline.
A substantial section of air passengers from Punjab have already flown by this airline through its weekly Amritsar-Milan-Amritsar service.
Depending upon the response the airline may increase the frequency of its operations to twice or thrice a week. Once introduced it will also meet a long standing demand of Punjabi Diaspora of North America, especially Ontario.
Fly Amritsar Initiative has been lobbying hard for a long time to get the air connectivity of the holy city with North America in general and Toronto and Vancouver in particular.
As there has been a growing demand for direct connectivity between Amritsar and North America, the Italian air carrier has come forward by fixing an attractive fare for the Amritsar-Toronto flight. It would be much cheaper than the air fares most of the international airlines, including Air India, and others are offering for this sector. The additional advantage of this flight, according to sources in the aviation industry, will be a reasonable or short layover in Milan.
According to the company web site, the airline has been growing steadily and firmly since it started its air operations more than two decades ago.
It has its network of marketing and other key operations, both in Punjab with a Jalandhar based travel house and another credible house of Toronto. According to sources, all clearances have been obtained for this fully licensed air carrier to start its Amritsar-Toronto flight as a great gift to the Punjabi Diaspora.
The airline hopes for an overwhelming response from the Punjabi community of North America as summer holidays start to coincide with the start of the much awaited flight.
It says: “Characterized by a consistent mission to offer the market a high quality air transport activity both in flight and on land, NEOS was born in June 2001 and, once it obtained the Air Carrier Certificate on the 7th March 2002 from the National Civil Aviation Body (ENAC), its first Boeing 737-800W (Winglet) I-NEOS “City of Milan” took off from Milan Malpensa the following day to Senegal (Dakar and Cap Skirring). Regular flights started however in October of the same year as the only Italian air carrier being authorized to fly the route Italy-Cape Verde, followed by routes to the Canary Islands in August 2003 and to numerous important holiday destinations in the Mediterranean in the summer of 2004. Long haul flights finally started in December 2004 and are currently performed by six Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner which the first has been on duty since 13th December 2017, the second since 29th June 2018, the third since 01st November 2018, the fourth since 09th September 2019, the fifth since 08th December 2020 and the sixth since February 16, 2021.
NEOS has been the first Italian airline to be certified JAR OPS since its inception. It carries out technical maintenance on its aircrafts and other carriers’, with its own Personnel, at the Milan Malpensa airport applying what is provided for on the matter by the JAR 145. At its headquarter it carries out training programs for pilots and flight assistants on Boeing 737-800 and 787-9 following the TRTO certificate that was awarded in September 2002. Neos owns its bases at the airports of Milan Malpensa, Verona and Bologna, from which it operates daily regular flights and charter flights.
In the passengers’ cockpit the Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner utilizes a light system called “mood lighting system”. By utilizing a sophisticated led system in lieu of the old technology neon lights, the internal brightness can be varied in different colour tones for each flight phase which, furthermore, allows for significant energy saving whilst providing the same light intensity. The aircrafts of the Neos fleet are all equipped with IFE (In Flight Entertainment) which features a series of LCD screens to broadcast reportages, documentaries and movies of the Neos program, inclusive of a series of audio channels, divided in musical genres. Not least, the possibility to know at any time the current position of the aircraft along the route thanks to the Air Show system
Prabhjot Singh