Puducherry: Puducherry airport may soon start receiving flights as airlines have shown interest in flying out of the airports under the Centre’s ambitious regional connectivity scheme (Udan).
SpiceJet and Air Odisha are expected to launch operations through the airport by the month of April. According to Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, the air service will connect the former French town with Hyderabad, Tirupati, Chennai, Salem, Bengaluru and Coimbatore in the first phase and later the operations would be extended to all major cities in South India.
“Most probably the flight services would be revived by the month of April. Puducherry is the first among the 100-odd airports to launch flights under Udan,” said R. Mounisamy, director of Puducherry Tourism.
The civil aviation ministry and the Puducherry government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the regional connectivity scheme in New Delhi on October last year.
The regional aviation scheme, which would be in operation for 10 years, envisages providing connectivity to unserved and underserved airports of the country through revival of existing airstrips and airports. Passengers may soon be able to fly out of the airports by paying '2,500 for an hour’s flight.
Constructed in 1989, the Puducherry airport was underutilised for decades as several attempts to operate flights and choppers by different airlines failed. The last attempt was made in 2014 when Alliance Air launched flights to Bengaluru but stopped services within six months.
Apart from that the 1,222 metre runway of Puducherry airport is not sufficient to handle medium type of aircrafts. The Territorial administration has sought around 80 acres land from Tamil Nadu that falls under the latter’s territory for the expansion of its airport.
“The death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and recent political developments in Tamil Nadh had delayed the discussions regarding the land acquisition.”
“The administration is making all efforts to acquire the land so that the development of airport can be done expeditiously”, said Mr Mounisamy while talking to Deccan Chronicle on Thursday.
