SHILLONG: Fliers travelling to Kolkata from Shillong and vice versa will soon have a second choice of airline with IndiGo set to start a daily service from the Umroi airport beginning July 20.
The airline is likely to operate an ATR 72 aircraft, official sources here said adding travelers can already start booking for the service.
An official said that Alliance Air, which has been the lone operator between Shillong and Kolkata, would continue its service.
The IndiGo flight would take off from Kolkata every day at 2.45 pm and land at Umroi at 4.25 pm. From Umroi, the flight would take off at 4.45 pm and land in Kolkata at 6.30 pm.
While IndiGo would initially operate in the Shillong-Kolkata route, it could connect the state capital to other metropolitan cities in future if the response is good, the official said.
The official also said that the state government had recently floated a tender for operation of services from Shillong and more private airlines are expected to show up.
Landlocked Meghalaya is in need of better air connectivity since even under UDAN scheme, the carrier which was to connect Shillong to other Northeastern cities could never take off.
It may be mentioned that the High Court of Meghalaya earlier had summoned officials of IndiGo and Air Asia and had taken objection to Inter Globe Aviation Limited, which operates the former, stating low visibility and landing troubles as some of the reasons for not operating to and from Umroi.
