By Jeannette Street
Shillong’s upgraded, Umroi Airport, nestled cosily in its landscaped setting of a large valley, with a range of hills surrounding it, is beautiful. Any flight-passenger would hold a most favourable impression of the place. The ease of the commute to the Airport, because it is near your State Capital and not in another State… is one of indescribable joy! A passenger can leave Shillong and get to Kolkata in three hours. The inconvenience of getting a bus or taxi to Guwahati Airport which entails anywhere from a 3 – 6 hour commute depending on traffic / weather conditions, add to this the time for checking in and a half day is wasted in getting to the airport. For regular travellers this is tiresome, cumbersome and inefficient. This stress, of getting to the airport is simply removed. With the economic reality setting in, that the State must create alternative viable sources of income and the ease with which travellers and tourists, can arrive at this beautiful destination, (with money to spend), is vital and not to be ignored.
In today’s world, an airport is a most crucial infrastructure for any place. Ease of accessibility, defines the commercial and strategic success of an airport and subsequently, its city. In most cities, the Airport is a busy hub for transporting people and goods. Landing in an Airport also provides a first impression of the place; its facilities will give off clues as to what kind of place you’ve arrived in. Airports are the new eyes to look into how a city is progressing. How are Shillong Airport’s flight schedules in contrast to how neighbouring airport schedules then? At Aizawl Airport, passengers can fly daily to Kolkata and Guwahati and three flights a week to Imphal. At Imphal Airport, passengers can fly daily to Kolkata and Agartala and five times a day to Guwahati. At Agartala Airport, 22 flights operate to and from it every day. Shillong Airport operates a busy flight schedule of… one flight a day. Not every day either! Passengers get one flight to Kolkata five days a week. And that too, in a tiny propeller plane, which can easily, unsettle the nerves. Surely, we ought to be up for nomination for the Guinness World Record in “The Most Idle Airport in the World.” And in being kind and not mentioning flights comparison with our closest neighbour, Guwahati Airport, let us nevertheless not forget that it is incidentally very happily earning passenger money when we use their airport. And, Shillong Airport incidentally, is losing out very deeply in not being used by its own passengers.
Flying away from us, Agartala and Imphal Airports are currently upgrading their flights to International destinations. The neighbours are well on their runway, to the South-East Asian Corridor. Which leads to the bigger question: “So, why is the bigger plane not flying to Shillong? In Shillong, everything is ready for the bigger plane, except the runway…. I would laugh, if it weren’t so sad. The number of Shillong air passengers that use Guwahati Airport ranges from 50 – 100 every single day, according to an Airports Authority India, Regional Manager. Shillong Airport uses an aircraft model ATR 42, which at maximum flies 42 people. The Shillong passenger footfall alone validates a modern jet-plane, like a Boeing or an Airbus A310, (that seats 110 passengers) landing at the airport, every single day. Whilst there is noticeably an increase in passengers travelling between Shillong and Kolkata on the existing, tolerable flight service, the schedule regrettably falls away, during the monsoon season, due to the limitations of the present aircraft. And it just so happens, that Meghalaya holds the world record, for the heaviest monsoon rainfall…! Subsequently, that is a quarter of a year, where the airport is mostly, non-operational!
Getting back to answering the question, our runway is 6000 feet long and for a bigger plane to land, like an A310, our runway needs to be 8000 feet long. So, for a total of 2000 feet, the entire State (roughly 920,000 feet in length) does not derive the full benefit from the Airport. It just sits there… The Airport Security & Staff appear to be the ones who use the airport daily. An Airport is by nature, a busy place. Shillong Airport is unnaturally, not a busy place. In 2013, then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh made a speech stating that, the Shillong Airport is being expanded as Meghalaya is now emerging as a tourist destination. In the last few days, this newspaper ran an article on the Union Minister Jitendra Singh, talking about Northeast’s poor air connectivity. So, in the ‘League of NE Airports’ 2015, (unlike our Football Club’s performance in National Leagues) Shillong Airport’s performance is lowest in the League.
The prosperity and wellbeing of the entire State and its citizens is being compromised either, by a handful of people seeking more money for land, or, that our Government cannot come to an agreement for procurement of the land to extend the runway for the bigger plane to land. It should be said, that the State Government had handed over 224 acres of land for expansion of the runway from the existing 6000 feet to 7500 feet to facilitate landing of bigger aircrafts, but the expansion plans are yet to be implemented… In this land-locked State, the endurance of poor air connectivity foisted upon us by our Government is a wholesomely pathetic endurance for passengers and everybody. There are many opportunities, that arise from an Airport and we are totally missing out on them. Sadly, it isn’t the case, that the State provides an alternative choice either, for example, a train service.
In conclusion, whilst it appears it was of no importance to public servants, at the planning stage, yet for the non-flying public, the lack of public toilets at the Airport truly needs to be addressed. When you drop off a passenger at the Airport, if you wish to use a toilet there is none… # #