I know you and several of our colleagues have been flagging this issue with me for a while. Canadians, those who have a need or desire to travel to India, have been asking for so long to increase travel options, including direct flights to Amritsar. I certainly supported that objective.
Last spring, I met with the Indian minister of civil aviation here in Ottawa. I directly asked him about this and expressed our desire to expand the air transport agreement with India to enable flight operators to land anywhere and everywhere, to have an open sky agreement, including direct flights to Amritsar.
The Indian government was not ready for that step, so we agreed on an interim basis to expand what we have and lift the cap on the number of flights from 35 flights a week to an unlimited number of flights a week, however—to the same airports that have already been agreed upon.
I will still do whatever I can to advance that objective. I would like to see direct flights to Amritsar. We need the Indian government's approval for that, and we will continue to work with them on seeing that dream realized.