Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, launched its services on the Bengaluru-Mysuru-Bengaluru sector under UDAN-3 on Friday, enhancing air connectivity from the city.
The Alliance Air flight will operate five days a week except on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the inbound flight (which originates from Visakhapatnam in the morning to reach Bengaluru via Vijayawada) will depart from Kempegowda International Airport at 10.30 a.m. and reach Mysuru at 11.25 a.m. It will take off from Mysuru at noon to reach Bengaluru at 1 p.m. The same plane will fly from Bengaluru to Vijayawada, and from there on to Visakhapatnam.
Officials said the significance of the flight was not the direct air link to Bengaluru, but the one-stop connection it provides to outbound passengers from Mysuru to the rest of India. At present, passengers from Mysuru have to traverse nearly five hours by road to reach Bengaluru airport.
This is the second flight under UDAN operating from Mysuru as Trujet already offers a flight service to Chennai. On the first day of the flight, 46 passengers availed the service from Bengaluru to Mysuru, and a similar number of passengers had booked tickets in the outbound flight from the city to Bengaluru, with some flying on to Visakhapatnam. The ATR aircraft has a capacity of 72 passengers.
The routes under the third round of UDAN scheme, announced earlier this year, saw air operators bidding for flight paths. Mysuru, classified as an under-served airport, was linked with Goa, Kochi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Belagavi. This was in addition to the existing connectivity to Chennai. Officials confirmed that a few more flights are in the offing next month, including services to Goa, Kochi, and Belagavi.
District in-charge Minister G.T. Deve Gowda, who was among the dignitaries during the launch of the flight service, said flight services to Goa, Kochi and Hyderabad were likely to be launched in the first week of July.
Stakeholders, including travel consultants, car rental service providers, representatives of the hospitality sector, and senior officials of the Tourism Department and Airports Authority of India, said that additional flights to Mysuru would give a boost to the tourism sector, apart from ensuring more capital investment to propel industrial growth.
Officials said Mysuru has potential and the survey indicated the presence of a sizeable market for tourism and trade. The launch of the Goa and Kochi services is expected to bridge the gap and ease travel between the popular tourist destinations.
Published - June 08, 2019 12:15 am IST
