Ghaziabad: Flights for third route between Hindon-Kalaburagi start Nov 18

Ghaziabad: Starting November 18, one new route from Hindon to Kalaburagi in Karnataka will become operational from the civil terminal near the Hindon airbase in

Ghaziabad: Starting November 18, one new route from Hindon to Kalaburagi in Karnataka will become operational from the civil terminal near the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad under the ‘Ude Desh ka Aam Nagarik’ (UDAN) scheme.

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At present, two routes -- Hindon-Pithoragarh and Hindon-Hubli -- are operational at the civil terminal.

The flights to Kalaburagi will be run by Star Air, and officials of the airline said that they have already opened the bookings. The airline also operates flights between Hindon-Hubli with a 50-seater aircraft.

“The flights to Kalaburagi will start from November 18, and will be operational three days a week -- Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday with starting fare at ₹3,799. The flights for the other route of Hindon-Hubli are already scheduled for four days in a week (Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday). For the Hindon-Hubli route, we already have about 75% occupancy. For both the routes, we will be using a 50-seater aircraft,” said a spokesperson from Star Air.

The flights from the civil terminal at Hindon were suspended during the lockdown. The flight services resumed for a day on May 25. Thereafter, certain issues led to suspension of flights till August 15, officials said.

In its order of May 24, the ministry of civil aviation had issued directions for operation of Regional Connectivity Services under the UDAN scheme and issued several guidelines. One of the criteria stated that all routes up to 500km were permitted to resume operations. Notably, the Hindon-Hubli route has an air distance of about 1,282km.

“The issues got resolved in due course of time and our flights resumed from August 16 and continuing. The response for both the routes is encouraging,” the spokesperson of Star Air added.

However, the other route to Pithoragarh is yet to be made operational ever since the lockdown. The officials of Airport Authority of India at the civil terminal said that they are waiting for response from the airline concerned.

“We are yet to get any response from the airline which operates Hindon-Pithoragarh route. They had operated their last flight in March, and thereafter there is no information from their side. However, the other airline (Star Air) will be initiating the Hindon-Kalaburagi flights from November 18,” said Shobha Bhardwaj, director of the civil terminal.

The Hindon-Pithoragarh route is operated by Air Heritage. Its CEO Rohit Mathur did not respond to calls for his comments over the issue.

The first flight from the civil terminal was made operational between Hindon-Pithoragarh on October 11 last year, and after almost a month the second route between Hindon-Hubli got initiated on November 6.

The civil terminal at Ghaziabad is proposed to operate flights to eight routes of Nasik, Pithoragarh, Kannur, Hubli, Faizabad, Shimla, Jamnagar and Kalaburagi.