Agartala/Aizawl: With the number of flights to and from the northeastern states witnessing a sharp decline over the past several months, passengers from the region are facing severe difficulties travelling to other parts of the country.
The drop in flight numbers to the mountainous states of Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya is mainly attributed to modification in the Civil Aviation Ministry’s 25-year-old Route Dispersal Policy (RDP), which made it mandatory for all airlines to operate 10 per cent of their flights in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.
While ticket prices for flights to Kolkata, Delhi and other cities from all the northeastern states have shot up three to five times after Jet Airways, SpiceJet and IndiGo carriers suspended operations or reduced their frequency, the situation is most critical in Mizoram, from where no air tickets are available thoughout February.
“Some people from Mizoram wanted to go to neighbouring Silchar (in southern Assam) to catch Kolkata or Guwahati-bound flights, but there are no tickets available until the first week of March,” said a travel agent in Aizawl.
But following delay in these, the state government has started negotiating with some private airlines to start their services from Aizawl, said the state government’s principal consultant for civil aviation Wing Commander Joe Lalhmingliana said.
Tripura Transport Minister Pranajit Singha Roy said the state government has approached both the Prime Minister’s Office as well as the Civil Aviation Ministry on countless occasions requesting them more flights to and from Agartala.
A senior Airports Authority of India (AAI) official, on condition of anonymity, said that in 2016, the Civil Aviation Ministry amended the RDP (formulated in 1994) reducing the liability of airlines from 10 to six per cent flights in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, and adding Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Kochi in Kerala to the mandatory list.
“This amended policy has hampered the interest of Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast creating an unprecedented crisis of flights between these regions and other parts of the country,” the AAI official added. (IANS)
