Stakeholders from the commerce and industry sectors are pinning their hopes on the new civil aviation policy unveiled by the Union government and the proposed viability gap funding for revival of the Mysuru airport.
The city airport at Mandakalli is off the air map with no commercial flights scheduled as three airlines withdrew their services citing poor patronage in recent years.
However, members of the commerce and industry sectors and various trade organisations in the city are vocal about the imperatives of air connectivity to the city to spur investment and are positive of originating air traffic from Mysuru provided the services are reliable.
“We are planning a presentation about Mysuru and its potential in terms of air passenger traffic besides the long-term industrial growth of the region … we will seek viability gap funding from the government to subsidise the airline operators to fly to Mysuru,” said Sudhakar Shetty, regional convenor of the Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI).
The presentation will be made to the higher authorities in the government and plans are to rope in the local MP, Pratap Simha, and other elected representatives to influence the policy makers, Mr. Shetty added.
Meanwhile, a senior official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in Mysuru said that there were discussions with a few flight operators following the unveiling of the new policy and though some of them had sounded positive of flying to Mysuru, there were no concrete developments.
“It is still in the realm of expression of intent,” the official said. Welcoming the new civil aviation policy, Suresh Kumar Jain of the Mysore Industries Association (MIA), said the Centre has specific conditions to extend viability gap funding under the new policy.
He said that Mysuru is expected to qualify for it in view of reasonably high passenger traffic which originated from the city when it had air connectivity.
“The viability gap funding under the Regional Connectivity Scheme on a cost sharing basis in 80:20 ratio between the Centre and the State will come in handy for reviving Mysuru airport,” he added.
The airport official said Mysuru already fulfils some of the major conditions to quality for viability gap funding which includes waiver on water and electricity charges, and free fire and security arrangements provided by the State government.
The current airport was upgraded at a cost of Rs. 80 crore by the AAI in 2010 but there were only direct flights to Bengaluru to provide onward connectivity. But the flights were slated for departure in the afternoons and though the occupancy rates were around 50 per cent, the schedules were erratic and the passenger traffic dwindled forcing the operators to stop operations from Mysuru.
