With the start of a direct flight to and from Delhi on Wednesday, Ludhiana resumed service after being off the air for more than three years.
An aircraft from Delhi landed at the domestic airport in Sahnewal this afternoon, marking the arrival of the first flight at the airport since August 2020 for Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora was present to accept it.
Mann stated that the fare would be discounted for three months by the government. He said that the private airline had granted his request to reduce the one-way fare from Ludhiana to Delhi from Rs 3,148 to Rs 999 for the first three months, a remarkable 68 percent drop. “This will be cheaper than the bus fare,” he said.
The viability gap funding (VGF) on all 19 tickets will be covered by the state government as compensation to the operator. To the advantage of the tourists, “We will pay the deficit of Rs 2,149 per ticket,” he declared.
Speaking to The Tribune at Sahnewal Airport, the CM said the industry and frequent travellers would gain from the resumed direct flights between Ludhiana and Delhi.
International airport at Halwara
“We are also in the process of opening the upcoming international airport at Halwara in Ludhiana shortly, following which more domestic and international flights will be operated from here,” the CM said.
In the following months, Star Alliance would connect Adampur with Hindon, he added, and SpiceJet had committed to begin operating daily flights from the new air terminal at Adampur to Nanded, Delhi, Goa, Kolkata, and Bengaluru.
Mann also revealed that starting on Friday, there would be a daily flight between Ludhiana and Bathinda, with connections to Delhi. “More domestic flights will also be started from Sahnewal shortly,” he added.
Delay of over six hours
The inaugural flight left Hindon domestic airport in Delhi around 2:30 pm instead of to the scheduled time of 9:25 am, a delay of over six hours.
Gen. VK Singh (ret. ), the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, who was the special guest at the event to send off the inaugural flight at Hindon, was preoccupied, which contributed to the delay.
Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the first flight touched down at Sahnewal Domestic Airport, and an hour later, the return flight departed. The change is significant because there had been no flights between Ludhiana and Delhi since August 2020.
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