Though no new international flight was added in the plan, the flight to Sharjah at 6.35pm will now operate twice a week instead of once a week from Chandigarh International Airport. Currently, flights to Dubai have not been started due low response amid Covid-19 pandemic. A timetable of 44 flights for summer from Chandigarh International Airport was released here.
The airport spokesperson said that the Indigo flight from Chandigarh to Nagpur started from Sunday and 42 passengers boarded on the first day. Flying at 6.35am daily, the flight will reach Nagpur at 10.10am. While returning, it will reach Chandigarh at 1.55pm and will depart from Nagpur at 10.40am. Earlier, there were no direct flights from Chandigarh to Indore and Nagpur.
IndiGo is also starting a direct flight from Chandigarh to Goa, which will leave from Chandigarh at 4.15pm. Apart from this, there will be direct flights from Chandigarh to Nagpur, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore, Shimla, Dharamshala, Kullu, Kolkata, Leh, Srinagar and Chennai.
IndiGo will operate a flight to Dehradun six days a week, which will depart from the city airport at 6.30 pm and reach there at 7.30 pm and will start from there at 8 pm and reach here at 9 pm. The IndiGo flight timings for Jodhpur and GoAir flight timings for Jammu are yet to be finalised.
On the other hand, air taxis will operate to Hisar.
Air India’s Chandigarh-Nanded Sahib flight will also start soon, with which devotees will be able to visit the religious site. Go Air’s flights to Mumbai, Srinagar, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Bangalore started on March 28 and will continue till April 30. Chandigarh-Bhubaneswar via Patna Flight IndiGo will start from April 15. It will run at 3.35 pm and reach Bhubaneswar at 8.05 pm.
Covid has increased air traffic from Chandigarh International Airport in the last two months due to limited means of travel from the city. At the same time, air connectivity to Chandigarh has increased and for this, the Airport Authority of India is giving incentive schemes to the airlines. No fees are being charged to park the aircraft at night and air turbine fuel is also being given at a subsidised rate.
In the past 10 months, the airport has incurred a loss of nearly ₹40 crore on various accounts amid the pandemic. Before the lockdown, the airport saw at least 12,000 passengers, both at arrivals and departures, daily. The number has since come down to around 7,000.
