THIS IS a typical conversation between a tourist and a tour operator:
No direct air connectivity between Lucknow and Varanasi? “No, Sir.”
How about Lucknow-Jaipur and Lucknow-Patna?
“No, Sir.”
Okay! How about Agra for a change?
Sir, the nearest airport is Delhi for connecting to all these destinations from Lucknow.
The country’s busiest flight information region—Lucknow which is located strategically in the East-West corridor with high density overflying international and domestic air traffic has flights only from Mumbai and Delhi landing on a sprawling airport complex.
“We are missing about 400 Japanese tourists a month in terms of foreign tourist traffic in the city on account of lack of direct air connectivity between Lucknow and Varanasi. These tourists are taking direct flights either between Delhi and Varanasi or opting for the Lucknow-Delhi-Varanasi air connectivity to reach the holy city”, Syed Rizwan Ahmed of international travel house SOTC told HT Lucknow Live.
Rizwan, who is preparing an academic paper on the “UP’s Buddhist Circuit” said that no low-cost airlines is currently interested in flying to Lucknow for serving feeder routes within Uttar Pradesh. This is despite the fact that there is sufficient load of tourists to offer onward connectivity for Jaipur, Varanasi and Patna circuits from Lucknow. Lucknow has holy places such as Deva Sharif and the city of Bareilly is known for its sufi traditions where thousands of tourists visit the shrines every year. “There is tremendous scope for the low-lost airlines to fly to Lucknow and offer onward ticketing for feeder routes which are high density traffic tourist destinations, he said.
Unfortunately, the entire Dargah circuit in Rajasthan with such an important religious destination such as Ajmer Sharif has many tourists from SAARC nations using the Delhi-Jaipur air connectivity. The same tourists arriving in Lucknow before their journey to Jaipur find that there is no direct air connectivity between Lucknow and Jaipur, Rizwan said. There are no private charter aircraft bringing tourist to Lucknow. Moreover, there is not much publicity about religious and heritage tourism possibilities in Uttar Pradesh which had made the government miss out on tourists who would have arrived in Lucknow to travel in other parts of the state, Rizwan said.
{{/usCountry}}Unfortunately, the entire Dargah circuit in Rajasthan with such an important religious destination such as Ajmer Sharif has many tourists from SAARC nations using the Delhi-Jaipur air connectivity. The same tourists arriving in Lucknow before their journey to Jaipur find that there is no direct air connectivity between Lucknow and Jaipur, Rizwan said. There are no private charter aircraft bringing tourist to Lucknow. Moreover, there is not much publicity about religious and heritage tourism possibilities in Uttar Pradesh which had made the government miss out on tourists who would have arrived in Lucknow to travel in other parts of the state, Rizwan said.
{{/usCountry}}All the flights arriving from Mumbai and Delhi are scheduled for Lucknow either in the morning or the evening hours while leaving a long afternoon slot without any air traffic at the Amausi airport. The airport can be better utilized during the afternoon hours if the low-cost airlines start flying to Lucknow during the non-peak hours while offering connectivity for Jaipur, Varanasi and Patna from the Amausi airport, another tour operator commented.