After much delay, flight services from the Puducherry airport are set to resume from September 1.
SpiceJet will operate a 60-seater ATR aircraft for Hyderabad-Puducherry-Hyderabad route every day.
Officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and SpiceJet will undertake a joint inspection of the airport facilities which has been scheduled for Friday.
“A communication in this regard was provided by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Tuesday,” Chief Secretary Manoj Parida told The Hindu .
The government has also written to the Civil Aviation Ministry about the request by commercial airline operators for free night-time parking facility at the airport. The appeal had been made been at a videoconference convened in Delhi by R.N. Choubey, Civil Aviation Secretary with respective Chief Secretaries, operators and various stakeholders under the Centre’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS).
Operators sought the concession as it would help avoid the cost levied by bigger airports.
“Since the airport is managed by the AAI and not the government, we have forwarded the proposal,” Mr. Parida said.
The government believes that this would encourage more route operators to consider linking Puducherry airport.
The long-term benefits might extend even beyond the Centre’s Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik or UDAN being implemented by the AAI, Mr. Parida said.
Subsidised tickets
Under the UDAN scheme, ticket prices have been pegged at a subsidised rate of ₹2,500.
It was in October, 2016, that the Government of Puducherry had signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under Regional Connectivity Scheme with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India.
The RCS, which would be in operation for 10 years, is being promoted through a financial stimulus in the form of Central and State government concessions, as well as Viability Gap Funding to airlines to kick-off operations from smaller airports.
Already, under the RCS, a slew of waivers such as landing fees and concessions, including free water, electricity and reduced 1% VAT on fuel, is being extended. Adding more concessions would need to be worked through.
Clearance for Air Odisha
Air Odisha has been granted route clearance to operate flights on the Chennai-Puducherry-Salem-Bengaluru circuit, though the modalities are still being finalised.
Incidentally, SpiceJet will be re-entering Puducherry air space as it was the first operator to launch services from here in 2013 with direct flights connecting Puducherry and Bengaluru.
However, about a year later, the airline stopped services citing viability issues after operating the last Bombardier flight on January 31, 2014.
Alliance Air, the budget airlines of Air India, was operating flights to Bengaluru six days a week since April 14, 2015, but stopped in October the same year following a subsidy spat with the government.
