SHILLONG, Nov 23: The Shillong-Delhi flight service has turned out to be a major disappointment for residents of the state capital.
FlyBig had launched the flight service connecting the Meghalaya capital with Delhi with much fanfare in December 2020. The service has been stopped for unknown reasons and it is unlikely to be resumed soon.
Shillong Airport officials said FlyBig has not been operating for a long time. The airline, which had suspended services once earlier, confirmed they are not operating on the route “as of now”.
The operation was stopped a few days after Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma had travelled to Delhi in October.
It is learnt that the company was not getting a sufficient number of passengers and many people were not aware of the service. The airline also did not publicise its service or flight schedule extensively.
Ravi Kant, the Regional Executive Director (North Eastern Region) denied that the cancellation of flights to and from the Shillong Airport is frequent.
“Flights often get cancelled due to bad weather in this route,” he said.
He, however, said the airport has a Very High-Frequency Omni-Directional Range and Instrument Landing System for flights to land in poor visibility.
He had visited the airport recently and reviewed the status of the projects, discussed operational issues and the upgrades required.
Airport officials said a Shillong-Kolkata IndiGo flight had developed a technical snag and was parked there for a night before being repaired.
Apart from Kolkata, the Shillong Airport is connected to various north-eastern destinations such as Dibrugarh, Agartala, Silchar and Imphal. Alliance Air recently started its services connecting Shillong to Guwahati and Dimapur.
The Chief Minister had a few days ago taken a flight from Shillong to Imphal.
“The new route is proving to be quite convenient for travellers,” he had said.