New airline may come to Shillong airport
SHILLONG: The North Eastern Council (NEC) has extended the service of Alliance Air, which is operating from Shillong airport, till June this year.
NEC Chairman Ram Muivah said on Tuesday the agreement with Alliance Air ended in December and it was again extended for six months.
In the North East, Alliance Air flies from Kolkata to Umroi (Ri Bhoi district) and three Assam airports – in Lilabari (Lakhimpur district), Silchar (Cachar district) and Tezpur (Sonitpur district) – and back.
Though many private airlines have responded to NEC’s expression of interest in the past, but none of the major players have operated from Shillong airport.
However, as per media reports, a new private airline, Zoom Air, is looking to start services from New Delhi to Shillong, Aizawl, Aurangabad, Chandigarh, Dharamshala, Dimapur, Durgapur, Hyderabad, Kullu, Jorhat, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ranchi, Mumbai and Srinagar.
However, officials from NEC as well as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said they have no information about this.
Meanwhile, development work at Shillong airport is in progress despite several hurdles, including litigation cases. An AAI official said work on the instrument landing system will be over shortly.
The airport is still awaiting a better runway for bigger aircraft.