Darbhanga airport crosses 1 lakh passenger milestone within 4 months

Spicejet, the lone airline with a license to fly from Darbhanga under UDAN, has again opened booking for Ahmedabad after having discontinued the direct Darbhanga-Ahmedabad flight on February 15.

After handling roughly 650 flights and around 1.10 lakh fliers in nearly four months after its inauguration, Darbhanga airport is proving to be a big success story of Centre's regional connectivity scheme (RCS-UDAN).

The Darbhanga airport. (HT File)

35,888 passengers used Darbhanga airport in February to travel on 214 flights. In January, despite frequent flight cancellations due to foggy weather, 20,420 passengers travelled on 132 flights. In December, the airport handled 158 flights and 26,318 passengers. Flight operations under RCS-UDAN scheme was launched in Darbhanga on November 8 last year.

Airport director Biplab Kumar Mondal said the Airport Authority of India was making all efforts for smooth and comfortable travel despite limited space at civil enclave at Darbhanga airport, which is also an Indian Air Force base. He said a plan is being made for the construction of a permanent civil enclave after land acquisition is done for the purpose.

"We have to be more inventive in utilising existing facilities to ensure a convenient journey amid rising numbers of passengers,” Mondal added.

Recently, at the civil aviation consultative committee meeting, minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Darbhanga airport was one of most successful examples under the RCS scheme.

Spicejet, the lone airline with a license to fly from Darbhanga under UDAN, has again opened booking for Ahmedabad after having discontinued the direct Darbhanga-Ahmedabad flight on February 15. The airline officials, however, declined to confirm the resumption of the flight. However, it is confirmed that the airline is starting the second daily flight to Mumbai from March 10.

The launch of flights on Hyderabad and Pune routes from Darbhanga continues to be in limbo for want of necessary clearances. At present, the airport is connected to Delhi (2 flights), Mumbai and Bengaluru- one flight each daily.

According to a senior airport official, who didn’t want to be named, IndiGo airline has completed spade work for launching flight operations from Darbhanga and was awaiting clearance and it was unlikely for it to start flight operations in March.