E-Paper
Adityanath flags off new Gorakhpur-Lucknow flight service
The introduction of the flight is part of the Centre’s regional connectivity scheme UDAN that aims to make air travel affordable as well as available to all regions and states of the country.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Sunday flagged a new flight service from Gorakhpur to Lucknow. The chief minister also laid the foundation stone for the expansion of the Mahayogi Guru Gorakhnath Airport terminal building. The ceremony was attended by state minister of civil aviation Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, Lok Sabha MP Ravi Kishan and chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI) Anuj Aggarwal.
With the addition of the service from Gorakhpur to Lucknow, the number of flights from Gorakhpur to seven major cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Prayagraj will go up to 12. Another aircraft will also be added to this list from April 12 as a Spice Jet flight will allow passengers to fly from Gorakhpur to Ahmedabad from that day.
The introduction of the flight is part of the Centre’s regional connectivity scheme UDAN that aims to make air travel affordable as well as available to all regions and states of the country. The scheme is at the centre of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP), which was introduced by the ministry of civil aviation in 2016. The scheme is jointly funded by the Centre and state governments.
The expansion of the Gorakhpur airport was one of the targets of the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh as the airport has witnessed a significant increase in passenger numbers owing to which the terminal building of the airport will now be expanded. The extended terminal building will be able to handle 200 passengers during peak hours. The central government has approved ₹26.87 crore for it and AAI plans to equip the airport with 10 check-in-counters.
Currently, the Gorakhnath airport has one runway which is designated 11/29 and has dimensions of 2,743 by 46 metres (9,000 ft × 150 ft). Including the newly inaugurated flight, Alliance Air operates two flights to Delhi and Lucknow, IndiGo operates six flights to Allahabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai and SpiceJet operates three flights to Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai.
