Puducherry’s flight services suspended temporarily

Alliance Air, the lone flight operator at the Puducherry airport has suspended its services from October 15, just six months after it had begun.

Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, had been operating flights to and from Bengaluru on its 48-seater ATR 42-320 on all days of the week except Wednesdays. It had started its operations on April 14 this year. The last time the Puducherry airport was operational was when Spice Jet had flights to and from Bengaluru for just over a year, from January 2013 to January 2014.

For over a year, Puducherry had remained off the air connectivity map. In October, the Government had introduced a scheme of Viability Gap Funding under the umbrella of tourism promotional initiatives, wherein the Puducherry government offered Rs. 1,000 each for an aggregate of 200 seats on a daily basis, subject to a cap of 50 seats or a sum of Rs. 50,000 per fixed wing or rotary aircraft.

Among the airlines that evinced interest, it was Alliance Air that ventured into operations.

However, over the last few days, Air India has stopped taking bookings for the sector on its website. The airline had not issued any statement regarding suspension of its services either.

When contacted, officials at the airport stated there had been some ‘payment issues’, and hence flight services had been suspended for now. They also seemed unaware if flight services will resume anytime soon.

“The suspension of services is temporary. We will ensure that flight operations will resume shortly, especially with tourism season set to peak,” Manoj Parida, Chief Secretary said.