Hindon civilian flights likely April-end

An official of AAI’s planning department, who was involved in the construction of the terminal at Hindon, said it is up to the airlines when they want to start operating from the terminal.

The passenger terminal at the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad may have been inaugurated by the Prime Minister on March 8, but there have been no civilian flights to or from it so far, with the first being expected only by the end of April.

The passenger terminal at the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on March 8. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

In January 2018, the civil aviation ministry awarded four routes under its UDAN low-cost flying scheme to Hindon —Hubli (Karnataka), Pithorgarh (Uttarakhand), Kannur (Kerala), and Ozar (Nasik)— to Star Air, Heritage Airline, and IndiGo (which got two routes), but the airlines say they were waiting for the terminal to be ready before starting to work on getting everything else in place for the flights.

The terminal was inaugurated ahead of the election announcement on March 10 — an election announcement immediately brings the so-called model code of conduct into effect, preventing such inaugurations —and, according to the Airports Authority of India (AAI), all civil work has been completed with only some small things, such as some electricity connections and ground handling remaining.

An official of AAI’s planning department, who was involved in the construction of the terminal at Hindon, said it is up to the airlines when they want to start operating from the terminal.

That should happen soon, airline officials said.

“The infrastructure is ready but we are hiring some locals for the airport work and will start the bookings soon. Our slot coordination team will decide on the timing following which we will start the operation,” said SS Tiwana CEO of Star Air, which will ply on the Hubli-Hindon route on a 50-seater
aircraft.

“We are expecting to start operations by the first or second week of April. Our team will visit the airport and take a final call soon,” said Ratnakar Gupta of Heritage Aviation, which will operate the Pithoragarh-Hindon flight in a nine-seater plane.

IndiGo did not respond to a query seeking comment.

Hindon Airport belongs to the Indian Air Force .

The AAI has developed a passenger terminal in it at the cost of ₹40 crore for the operation of flights under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS).

As the Delhi airport is congested, the civil aviation
ministry decided to shift the regional flights to Hindon.

In phase two of UDAN scheme, four routes were awarded to Hindon and in the third phase more cities such as Jamnagar, Shimla, Kalaburgi, and Faizabad are expected to be connected to it.

Apart from developing a civil enclave in the airport on 5.6 acres, another 4.8 acres was used for construction of approach road .

The terminal building has been constructed on an area of 5425 square metre with eight check-in counters.

The terminal will be able to handle 300 passengers simultaneously during peak hours.