Direct flights to start out biweekly between Kolkata and London on Mamata’s request: Trinamool

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee throughout his go to to London, on March 24, 2025.
| Picture Credit score: ANI

The Trinamool Congress on Thursday (March 27, 2025) claimed that British Airways will begin direct biweekly flights between Kolkata and the UK after a request for a direct route by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee throughout her ongoing journey to London.

“British Airways is performing on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s suggestion, with plans for biweekly direct flights already in movement,” the Trinamool Congress posted on its social media accounts on Thursday (March 27, 2025).

Nevertheless, British Airways has to date not given an official assertion on the identical. 

A number of days prior, the Chief Minister, throughout her go to to the Excessive Fee of India in London, had appealed to the Indian Ambassador to pursue the prospect of a direct flight between Kolkata and London, including that the current fireplace and energy outage at London’s Heathrow Airport had lengthened her eight-hour-long journey to an 18-hour-long journey.

“Bengal will not be too removed from right here, however we would like direct flights. My request to the Ambassador of India to the U.Ok. could be to pursue it. Earlier, there was British Airways, however earlier than we got here to energy, (the London-Kolkata route) was withdrawn,” the Chief Minister had stated earlier this week.

Later, throughout an interactive session with buyers in London, she reiterated her attraction and introduced that her authorities would give gasoline concessions for direct flight connections.

The Chief Minister had touched upon the problem on the Bengal World Enterprise Summit earlier this 12 months. “I spoke to (the Chairperson of Tata Sons) on the telephone… I requested him to start out direct flights between West Bengal and Europe since they’ve taken over the operations of Air India. He responded positively,” she had stated in February this 12 months.