MPs oppose British Airways’ decision to pull out of Kolkata

Concerned over British Airways closing down its Kolkata-London flights from March, several MPs from West Bengal today asked the government to check this trend and also make Kolkata a gateway for East-bound flights.

A delegation of Left MPs from the state today met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and gave a memorandum demanding government’s intervention in the matter, saying the decision to pullout of Kolkata by some international carriers was a "terrible setback" to the government’s Look East Policy.

While it was natural that global meltdown had affected airports and the aviation sector, they said air traffic from Kolkata to London is also affected.

Government is bound to stop this trend of winding up" of operations by global carriers from the country, they said, adding that the decision of British Airways to close down its Kolkata operations from March 28 had come as “a bolt from the blue”.

The signatories to the memorandum included Basudeb Acharia, Mohd Salim, Tarit Baran Topdar, Anil Basu, Basudeb Barman, Susmita Bauri, Sudhansu Sil and Amitava Nandi.

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