By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, May 10: While the upgrade and expansion of Shillong Airport is expected to take considerable time, flight operations at the airport—once connected to several Northeastern cities—have now been reduced to merely four to six movements per day.
At one point, the airport had direct flights to major Northeast cities including Dimapur, Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Agartala and even Silchar. Currently, however, it is only connected to a few destinations such as Kolkata, Aizawl, Delhi and Imphal.
There was a time when 400-500 passengers used the airport daily, but the number has declined due to the suspension of several flight services that operated under the UDAN scheme.
Nowadays, an average of four to eight flight movements (arrivals and departures combined) take place at the airport daily and passenger traffic has dropped significantly. The passenger count exceeds 400 only on days when there are eight flight movements.
On May 8, two flights arrived and two departed, with a total of 215 passengers using the services. On May 7, there were six flight operations and 285 passenger movements recorded.
Many direct flights from Shillong Airport to neighbouring cities have been suspended in recent months. After Indigo discontinued its flights to and from Silchar and Agartala, Alliance Air also suspended its Shillong-Dimapur and Shillong-Guwahati flights, despite the Shillong-Dimapur route being quite popular.
These flights, operated by different airlines, were discontinued after the viability gap funding—financial support under the Regional Connectivity Scheme—came to an end.
The state government has repeatedly clarified that it cannot intervene, as these flights were operated under the UDAN scheme, an initiative of the Union Government.
Now, with the expansion of the airport’s runway expected to be completed by next year, there is renewed optimism among residents. They hope to resume travel to various cities directly from Shillong Airport, instead of undertaking the longer and costlier journey to Guwahati.