Puducherry’s air connectivity has a chequered history.
It was with much fanfare that Puducherry joined the country’s air connectivity map when on January 17, 2013, Spicejet launched Puducherry-Bengaluru flights. Spicejet’s Bombardier Q 400 aircraft operated thrice a week flights connecting Puducherry and Bengaluru with a flying time of roughly 50 minutes.
SpiceJet gradually scaled up its services from thrice a week to four days a week after the1500-metre runway was certified as fit to handle flights with full passenger loads. However, barely a year later, the operator exited the scene citing poor passenger response.
In the months preceding the pull-out, the carrier was operating six days a week at ticket rates ranging between Rs. 2,000 and 2,500 while peak tariffs were in the Rs. 5,000-6,000 range.
After lying idle for almost a year, the Puducherry air terminal saw resumption of flight services on April 14, 2015 when Alliance Air stepped in.
However, the services lasted only about six months before the operator suspended operations over a subsidy dispute.
