Air India Express Amritsar to Abu Dhabi schedule and fare
Air India Express opens Amritsar to Abu Dhabi on Sunday 25 October 2026, the first nonstop between Punjab and the emirate. Seats are already on sale. One aircraft works both legs and turns round in about an hour, which is why the flight home always leaves in the small hours.
Every UAE flight from Amritsar
Amritsar had no nonstop to Abu Dhabi until now, so travellers flew into Dubai or Sharjah and finished by road. Dubai and Sharjah keep two flights a day each, so the new route changes where you land rather than how often you can go.
Questions
When does Air India Express start flying from Amritsar to Abu Dhabi?
The first flight leaves Amritsar on Sunday 25 October 2026. Several reports in Punjab gave the start as 29 October, but seats are on sale for the 25th and we found none on the two operating days before it. The 25th is also the day the northern winter timetable begins, which is when a new route normally starts. Air India Express has not published a separate press release for the route.
What days does the Amritsar to Abu Dhabi flight operate?
Out of Amritsar it flies on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays as IX101, leaving at 20:40 and landing at 23:50. Coming back it flies on Fridays, Sundays and Mondays as IX102, leaving Abu Dhabi at 00:55 and landing in Amritsar at 06:15. The return days are not a misprint: the aircraft lands late at night and starts back about an hour later, so your flight home is the small hours of the following morning.
How long is the flight from Amritsar to Abu Dhabi?
Four hours and forty minutes going out, and three hours and fifty minutes coming back. That is longer than the distance suggests because Indian carriers are routing around Pakistani airspace, which adds a wide detour to anything flying west out of Punjab. Both legs are flown by an Airbus A320neo.
How much is a flight from Amritsar to Abu Dhabi?
Fares started at INR 18,409 one way for one adult when we sampled the route on 16 September 2026, and the homebound leg started at INR 19,977. Those are snapshots of the cheapest nonstop, not a fixed price, and they move with the date you pick. The opening weeks priced the same as the November week we sampled, so there is no launch discount to chase.
Can I fly nonstop from Amritsar to Dubai or Sharjah instead?
Yes, and you have done for years. Dubai and Sharjah each have two nonstops a day from Amritsar, and the three Abu Dhabi flights take the city to 31 weekly departures to the UAE. Both leave you a road transfer to Abu Dhabi city, roughly ninety minutes from Dubai and about two hours from Sharjah, which is the leg the new flight removes. Air India Express’s wider network is tracked on our Air India Express news page.
Sources
- Air India Express, the airline’s own Amritsar to Abu Dhabi page, which lists the route and its fares.
- AeroRoutes, Air India Express NW26 network additions, 14 September 2026: the route effective 25 October 2026, three a week on an A320neo.
- The Tribune, 15 September 2026: the schedule, the times and the FlyAmritsar Initiative’s weekly-flight count.
- Wego flight search, sampled 16 September 2026 in INR: the flight numbers, times, aircraft, operating days, first day of service and fares.
How these figures were produced
- A route launch has no travel window of its own, so nothing here is priced to fixed dates. Every fare is a sampled snapshot and every link opens a live search you set your own dates on.
- Wego’s published timetable returns nothing at all for Amritsar to Abu Dhabi, which is normal for a route that has not started flying. The schedule was rebuilt from live bookable inventory instead, queried one date at a time for economy, one adult, nonstop only.
- Every day of a November week was checked in both directions, not only the days the announcement named, so the days with no flight are a measured result rather than an assumption.
- The start date was settled the same way. There are no seats on 22 or 24 October, there are seats on 25 October, and the two reported dates disagreed, so the first day on sale is what the article states.
- The Dubai and Sharjah timetable records both end on 18 October 2026, before the winter changeover, so those routes were rebuilt from live inventory too rather than read off the feed.
- Results carry no operating-carrier field, so codeshares look like separate flights. Three were removed by matching departure time and aircraft: two Air India numbers sitting on Air India Express aircraft, and one ticketing-carrier duplicate of the SpiceJet flight priced at nearly four times the fare.
- Fares are the cheapest nonstop for one adult in economy, quoted one way in each direction because that is how the route was sampled. Currency is INR because the page prices journeys from one origin market, Amritsar.
- Baggage and cancellation terms are not stated here. The fare feed carries them and its accuracy is known to vary in both directions, so check them on the airline’s own booking page.
Disclaimer: We’ve worked hard to make sure the information in this article is as accurate and up to date as possible at the time of publishing. Travel details such as prices, schedules, visa rules, and entry requirements can change at short notice, so it remains your responsibility to verify the current details with official sources before you book or travel. Wego accepts no liability for any loss or inconvenience arising from the use of this content.
