India-Afghanistan air connectivity made easy
Kam Air launches two new flights to run between Afghanistan and India
New flights connecting India’s capital New Delhi with two main cities of Afghanistan is expected to boost tourism and a step towards a better bilateral relationship.
On October 2, 2017, Mohammad Afzal Hadeed, the chairman of the Provincial Council of Balkh province, and Manjish Grover, consul general of India in Mazar-e-Sharif, together inaugurated new flights directly connecting New Delhi to the two main cities of Afghanistan, in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.
Kam Air of Kam group of companies, a private company, will be operating two flights a week, one, from the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in the north of Afghanistan on Mondays and Wednesdays, and the other, from the city of Herat in the west of Afghanistan on Tuesdays and Fridays. The inaugural flight took off from Mazar-e-Sharif’s Maulana Jalalludin Balkhi Airport for New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.
Congratulations Mazar-e Sharif and to everyone in the Northern Provinces for launch of direct Kam Air flight today from Mazar to Delhi pic.twitter.com/GxQUVLkv7N
— India in Mazar (@IndianConsMazar) October 2, 2017
Masood Hamdard, finance officer at Hand in Hand Afghanistan, a not-for-profit and non-governmental organisation believes that this new venture would enhance trade and commerce relations between the two countries. He said, “It is definitely a time saver. Earlier, a lot of time was wasted in formalities like double check-ins. Now merchants can directly load and ship goods for export. Further, most of the travellers who travel to India are patients and it is difficult for them to go through the long procedures of double check-ins. We appreciate this initiative.”
After the establishment of Afghan-India Friendship Dam, Salma Dam, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 and the establishment of Air Freight Corridor in 2017, this new airline connection seems to be another step forward towards a healthy bilateral relationship between the two countries.
On June 19, 2017, first flight from Kabul to Delhi marked the inauguration of the Air Freight Corridor. “The connectivity established through the Air Freight Corridor will provide Afghanistan, a landlocked country, greater access to markets in India, and will allow Afghan businessmen to leverage India’s economic growth and trade networks for its benefit. It would enable Afghan farmers quick and direct access to the Indian markets for their perishable products,” the Ministry of External Affairs revealed in a press statement.
