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19-seater flight resumption: Airliner Flybig keen to start Bathinda-Hindon flight, timeframe undecided
Suspense prevails on Bathinda’s air re-connectivity programme as management of Flybig aviation has yet to come up with a flight schedule.
Suspense prevails on Bathinda’s air re-connectivity programme as management of Flybig aviation has yet to come up with a flight schedule.
In September last, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) permitted a young entrant in the country’s aviation sector to fly a 19-seater aircraft on the Bathinda-Hindon in Ghaziabad route under the last mile connectivity facility.
The service will be under UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik), an initiative by the centre government to connect the country’s under-served and unserved airports.
Officials sources in the AAI said Flybig has been awarded to operate an air taxi service on the short-haul flight or which is one of up to 3 hours in duration and it is up to it when it would launch the service to Bathinda.
Ajay Sahai Jasra, director, Flybig’s corporate affairs, stated the firm was inducting two twin otter aircrafts in its fleet by the end of January and these planes would be deployed primarily on routes in Uttar Pradesh.
“It would be speculative to share a timeline of operations on the Hindon-Bathinda route. However, Flybig is committed towards operations on all routes awarded under UDAN,” said Jasra.
Alliance Air (AA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India, was flying a 72-seater plane on Delhi-Bathinda and Bathinda-Jammu under the Region Connectivity Scheme (RCS) in December 2016.
“With fully functional institutes like the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Central University of Punjab, Bathinda district had a lot of scope for growth in air connectivity, especially from Delhi or National Capital Region (NCR). We are looking forward to seeing when Flybig makes it functional as the market has potential,” said an official in the central aviation department.
AA, the sole air service provider to Bathinda, chose not to extend operations after the contract ended. The airline discontinued services on the Delhi route on November 28, 2020, whereas flights to Jammu were suspended on October 27, 2019.
Before the suspension of the flight service, the Bathinda-Jammu flight was operating five days a week, barring Tuesday and Thursday. The average occupancy rate on the Delhi and Jammu routes of AA flights remained 70-80%.
