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Come March 27, fly directly from Chandigarh to Indore, Chennai
Daily flight to Dubai to also resume as summer schedule commences at the Chandigarh International Airport
Passengers will be able to fly directly from Chandigarh to Indore and Chennai from March 27, when the summer schedule kicks in at the Chandigarh International Airport.
Though no new international flight has been added in the schedule, the Dubai flight, which was suspended amid the rise in Covid-19 cases, will also resume from March 27, as scheduled commercial international passenger services reopen across the country.
Arriving at 4.25 pm and departing at 5.40 pm, the IndiGo flight will ply daily and have a one side fare of around ₹10,000. Apart from this, Air India Express already operates an international flight to Sharjah on Tuesday and Friday.
Both international flights were launched in 2016 after the Chandigarh airport got the international tag. But after the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in March 2020, their operations remained erratic, until the Sharjah flight resumed fully in December last year.
In the summer schedule, the airport authorities have also resumed the Patna flight and increased the total number of flights from 40 to 60, including 12 to Delhi and 10 to Mumbai.
The detailed scheduled with the flights’ arrival and departure timings will be released in a few days.
With the airport having 24x7 operations, some domestic flights will continue to arrive till 12.30 am, while one will take off at 1.15 am.
“We are adding two more new destinations from Chandigarh – Indore and Chennai. We had introduced the Indore flight in the 2021 summer schedule as well. But it could not take off due to the pandemic. Also, the Dubai flight will be resumed and will operate on all seven days of the week. Even the Patna flight will be restarted,” said Rakesh Dembla, chief executive officer, Chandigarh International Airport Limited (CHAIL).
Amid the spike in Covid cases and restrictions on air traffic, the footfall at the Chandigarh International Airport had dropped to around 6,000 passengers per day – a 40 % dip from the earlier 10,000.
But with the introduction of more flights and new destinations by the end of March, the airport hopes to see return of normal footfall that will help it tide over losses worth nearly ₹40 crore on various accounts over the past two years.
The airport’s main source of revenue is the aeronautical category, whereby ₹800 per passenger is charged from the airlines. The other sources of revenue are retail shops, office spaces, vehicle parking and advertisements, which brought in around ₹30 lakh daily before the pandemic struck.
