GUWAHATI: Full-fledged operations of Air Deccan aircraft to and from Umroi airport began on Tuesday even as passenger load, particularly on the Shillong-Dimapur route, is yet to pick up.
“Today is the fourth day since full-fledged operations of 19-seater B1900D aircraft were launched on May 1. The services are being carried out in accordance with the schedule. The passenger load on the Agartala-Shillong and Shillong-Agartala routes is satisfactory but the same on the Shillong-Dimapur and Dimapur-Shillong routes is not up to mark as of today,” an Air Deccan official here told The Shillong Times on Friday.
The airline will operate on the Kolkata-Agartala-Shillong-Dimapur and Dimapur-Shillong-Agartala-Kolkata sectors six days a week.
“May be people are still not aware about the service on the Dimapur route as it has been just four days now. But we are hopeful that the passenger load on the route will increase in the coming days,” she said.
According to the daily flight schedule provided by the airline official, flight number, DN-701 departs Agartala at 9.20am and lands at Shillong airport at 10am while flight number DN-801 departs Shillong at 10.25am and reaches Dimapur airport at 11.20am.
Flight number DN-912 departs Dimapur at 11.35am and arrives in Shillong at 12.30pm while flight number DN-702 departs Shillong at 12.45pm and reaches Agartala at 1.25pm.
The airline had made a historic beginning with a route check on April 26.
The services under the regional connectivity scheme, also known as UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik), were much awaited after various delays.
Under the scheme, air fares are capped at Rs 2,500 per person for an hour’s flight to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities in which the government will provide subsidy for flying with such low fares.
The Centre had asked Air Deccan to start operations from the region by making Shillong as a hub after the airline failed to meet the deadline for launching flights on the routes it had bagged under the scheme.
Currently, Alliance Air operates just one ATR-42 aircraft on the Kolkata-Umroi-Kolkata route.