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No plan on cards to restart flight operations on Delhi-Bathinda route
Bathinda airport director Rakesh Rawat said aviation authorities wrote to two private players to consider running Delhi-Bathinda flight operations, but there has been no response from any quarter
As the summer schedule for domestic flights will be implemented from March 29, there has been no indication of the revival of the air connectivity to Bathinda.
Bathinda airport director Rakesh Rawat said the aviation authorities wrote to two private players to consider running the Delhi-Bathinda flight operations, but there has been no response from any quarter.
“There has been no word that flights would restart in the summer. The private players may be assessing the financial profitability on the previous twin connectivity routes from Bathinda to Delhi and Jammu,” said Rawat.
Bathinda was the only district in the western Punjab region with air connectivity.
Alliance Air (AA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India, was the sole service provider from Bathinda.
The AA chose not to extend operations after the contract ended two years ago. The airline had discontinued services on the Delhi route from November 28, 2020, whereas flights to Jammu were suspended on October 27, 2019.
Flights from the Bathinda airport were grounded after the lockdown was imposed due to the Covid outbreak in March 2020.
Only chartered planes have used the airport over the past few years.
Set up at a cost of ₹5 crore at Virk Kalan village, about 30 km from Bathinda city, in October 2012, the airport is adjacent to the Indian Air Force station in Bhisiana.
Official sources said in the absence of political intervention, air connectivity was not resumed even as there was a scope of profitability.
Before the suspension of the flight service, the Bathinda-Jammu flight was operating five days a week, barring Tuesday and Thursday.
Bathinda was connected to New Delhi with a thrice-a-week schedule and the route had an average occupancy of 80%. Flights to Jammu had an average occupancy of 70% with most visiting the pilgrimages of Vaishno Devi and Amarnath.
Sources added that 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.
