The wait for direct flight connectivity between New Delhi and Ludhiana is set to get longer. The private airline which has been allotted the Hindon-Ludhiana-Hindon route is likely to start operations in May. The flight service was earlier expected to start from April 1.
Hindon airport is located in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad, around 35 km from Delhi. This route was awarded to the private airline Big Charters under the government’s ambitious UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) plan which plans to make air travel available to a wider population.
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Big Charters will operate flights to both Ludhiana and Bathinda from Hindon. Once the Hindon-Ludhiana flight starts, the airline is planning to start operations on the Bathinda-Hindon route within three weeks.
Captain C S Randhawa, the executive vice-president of Big Charters, spoke to Times of India about the plan to connect Ghaziabad (read Delhi) and Ludhiana. He said that Big Charters is yet to get permission from the Ministry of Defence to operate a flight from the Hindon airport. A green signal from the defence ministry is a must because Hindon is an airfield.
“We were expected to start operations after getting the necessary approval on April 15, but now we feel that operations will not begin on April 28. But I am 100 percent sure that we will start flights in May, but I need to check date,” Randhawa said.
Hindon airport is the second commercial airport in Delhi NCR after IGI Airport and primarily handles domestic flights operating under the Government’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS). Big Charters officials have already visited Ludhiana’s Sahnewal airport and checked the ticketing counter, backup office and the ramp area.
Earlier, the flight between Delhi and Ludhiana was operated by Alliance Air. However, the Airline discontinued operations on this route on August 31, 2020.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic impacted flight operations, the response to the Alliance Air flight was very good and occupancy was mostly near 80 percent, according to reports. Having another airport close to Delhi will certainly make travel to Punjab easy for people.
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