SHILLONG: With only one flight landing at the Shillong airport, the services at the airport are unreliable. This is the reason most of the Shillong passengers including VIPs like ministers and senior bureaucrats still prefer to travel through Guwahati airport.
Due to the absence of Instruments Landing Systems which are yet to be installed the cancellation of flights due to inclement weather is very high. Flights from Kolkata to Shillong frequently fail to take off, thereby leaving passengers stranded. An aviation expert who did not wish to be named said, “What Shillong Airport needs is a Transponder Landing System (TLS) which is an all-weather, precision landing system that uses existing airborne transponder and Instrument Landing System equipment to create a precision approach at a location where an ILS would normally not be available”.
A person who recently traveled from Kolkata to Shillong on the ATR 48 said that the flight could not land at the Shillong airport due to bad weather and was diverted to Guwahati and from there they were provided vehicles to reach Shillong.
However, some officials from the Shillong airport claimed that the frequency of flight cancellations has gone down and the flights are more or less regular. Passengers who have faced a hard time due to of sudden flight cancellations, however, feel that the Government of Meghalaya makes tall claims about promoting tourism but pays no attention to upgrading this single airport.
The other problem that air passengers face is the absence of a regular transport service between Shillong airport and the city. Passengers have to book taxis which charge as much as Rs 1000 for a 30 kilometer drive from Shillong city Umroi airport.
For security reasons, visitors are not allowed to enter the airport and there are no canteen facilities where passengers and their relatives can have their refreshments.
The Umroi airport is still awaiting expansion which would enable bigger aircrafts to land. For this purpose, the land meant for expansion of the Umroi Airport has already been handed over to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). However, there is still some controversy over the village road which goes right through the Airport premises.
A person who recently landed at Umroi airport said that the flight was good and he was able to avoid the back-breaking journey from Guwahati to Shillong. “The airport has the potential to attract people provided there are more flights,” he added.
