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| Biju Patnaik Airport in Bhubaneswar |
Bhubaneswar, Nov. 3: Air India has withdrawn its flights from Bhubaneswar to Chennai and Calcutta, dealing a major blow to the government’s dream to upgrade Biju Patnaik Airport to an international airport.
While the Bhubaneswar-Chennai (AI-537) flight of the country’s official carrier stopped operating from yesterday, the Bhubaneswar-Calcutta (AI-770) flight will not be available from Monday.
Sources said Air India was mulling the cessation of these two flights for quite sometime now.
In fact, the airlines had suspended its services to the two metro cities from Bhubaneswar on a temporary basis on July 20 this year.
Flight operations to Chennai resumed on September 1, and to Calcutta on September 16. However, this time round, the operator seems to have pulled the plug on the service between Bhubaneswar and these two cities permanently.
Air India officials were tight-lipped about the reasons for withdrawal of the flights but sources attributed the move to operational constraints including poor turnout of passengers.
“Ever since the flights to these cities were resumed in September, they were averaging 60 to 70 passengers against the aircraft capacity of 122 for Chennai and 144 to 168 for Calcutta depending on the size of the airbus that the carrier chose to fly,” said a source, adding that the temporary suspension of the flights had an adverse impact on business.
While the Bhubaneswar-Calcutta flight operated daily, the one to Chennai operated five days a week, Tuesday and Saturday being off days. Sources said the operating cost for a single trip from Bhubaneswar to Calcutta was nearly Rs 2.5 lakh including fuel. It was Rs 3 lakh for the flights to Chennai.
However, all is not lost for people flying from Bhubaneswar to Calcutta and Chennai on a regular basis.
They can fall back on private operators such as Jet Airways and Indigo. Both have two daily flights connecting Bhubaneswar to Calcutta, but only one a day from here to Chennai.
The tour operators, though, are crestfallen. “This is the peak season for us. Air India’s move is certain to throw the tour plans of a large number of our clients haywire. Some of them may cancel their bookings. We find this decision of Air India, which was not taken in consultation with stake holders in the tourism sector, completely unacceptable,” said president of Travel and Tour Operators Association of Odisha, Benjamin Simon.
City-based hotelier, Debashis Patnaik, echoed similar feelings. “Air India’s flight to Chennai was the only the direct flight available to that city. A large number of Buddhist tourists come here from South-East Asia via Chennai. So, this move will adversely affect the tourism sector,” he said.
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