Parliament: MP Rajinder Gupta urges Centre to expand International flights network from Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Mohali
Babushahi Bureau
New Delhi, December 12, 2025: Padma Shri Rajinder Gupta, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament from Punjab and Chairman Emeritus of the Trident Group, has raised concerns over the limited international flight connectivity at Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali, urging the government to expand global air links from the airport.
Speaking in Parliament , MP Gupta highlighted that despite handling around 10,000 passengers daily and operating from a modern terminal designed to manage up to 4.5 million passengers annually, the airport currently offers only two international routes — to Dubai and Abu Dhabi — amounting to roughly nine international flights a week. This level of connectivity, he said, is disproportionately low compared to neighbouring aviation hubs and does not meet the growing travel demand from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
Gupta pointed out that the wider region is home to one of the largest populations of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), with significant communities in the United Kingdom, United States, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Canada. Yet, millions of travellers — including students, workers, business people and ordinary citizens — are forced to undertake long and costly journeys to Delhi’s airports to access direct international flights, adding to travel fatigue, congestion and carbon emissions.
He emphasized that introducing direct services to major destinations such as London, Toronto and Singapore would provide significant benefits to the people of the Tricity and surrounding regions, and strengthen the area’s emergence as a business, IT, medical and tourism hub. The airport’s catchment area, Gupta noted, represents a combined market of over 60 million people with strong economic potential.
Gupta called on the government to commission an independent route viability audit, fast-track terminal and customs capacity upgrades, secure extended operational windows, and incentivize airlines to launch priority international routes to Southeast Asia, Europe and North America. He also said that enhanced global connectivity would support defence logistics, given Chandigarh’s strategic importance, and align with the government’s regional development priorities.