SHILLONG, June 19: The Shillong Airport authorities have suggested replacing FlyBig with a more competent airline for operating Shillong-Delhi flights.
In a letter to Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma and Transport Minister Dasakhiatbha Lamare, they underlined the need for an alternate arrangement by terminating the agreement with FlyBig.
The Meghalaya government had inked a memorandum of understanding with FlyBig for operating Bombardier Q-400 flights on the Shillong-Delhi route every Monday and Friday. But the airline failed to honour its commitment and operated only 24 flights since December 2020 as against its mandate of 156 flights.
The airport authorities said SpiceJet had applied for charter operation on behalf of FlyBig two-three days before the service began. Consequently, passengers were unaware of the flights and the Delhi-Shillong service failed, they said.
According to letter, the efforts of the Meghalaya government, Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India to restart the services went in vain as FlyBig, without even informing the Shillong Airport authorities, did not operate any flight despite additional arrangements made to facilitate the operation.
“Due to non-operation of flights by FlyBig at Shillong Airport, a panic situation was created…,” the letter said, adding that passengers reported mishandling of baggage and failure of FlyBig to inform them about the cancellation of flights.
“At present, FlyBig has no Bombardier Q-400 aircraft and no slot allocation at Shillong Airport. Flybig is not capable of operating the flight on the Delhi-Shillong route,” the letter said, suggesting termination of the MoU with FlyBig and advising the government to “go for an alternate arrangement with some competent airline”.
