By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Umroi airport still has a long way to go before it attains the status of a full-fledged commercial airport. Even though efforts have been made to commence a direct flight from Shillong to Kolkata, the service is yet to find many takers in the city, as fliers are still drawn to travelling all the way to Guwahati to board their flights.
Sources from the airport said that usually 20 passengers fly in the ATR 46 flight that takes off from Umroi, five days in the week.
When asked about the reason for its poor response, sources said that the people need to be made aware about the flight through advertisements as the services have not been publicized in a large manner so far.
Sources commented on the laxity on the part of the Government to advertise and hence promote the usage of the air services.
Others also believe that the infrastructure at the airport is up to the mark to cater to the number of passengers.
“On Monday there were twenty six passengers,” sources said.
One reason that may be leading to less number of passengers using the airport is the fare which is a tad bit higher than what other airline companies are charging from Guwahati airport.
It may be mentioned that the Alliance Air, a subsidy of Air India had suspended its service from the Northeastern region (including Umroi airport) earlier this year, but services were resumed last month.
It is learnt that the services from the airport so far is quite regular and there have been hardly any instances when flights have been cancelled as in the past
There is a consensus on the view that if more flights were made available and airport connectivity were given more attention, the overall services would have picked up considerably.
At present, Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC) is operating its bus services from the airport and the bus fare has been fixed at Rs 100.
The North East Council (NEC) is hoping to rope in more private airline companies to operate from the airport and has invited bids for the same.
