LUDHIANADELHI FLIGHT TO START ON SEPTEMBER 2

SAHNEWAL (LUDHIANA): The Sahnewal Airport will see its first flight in three years on September 2. Bookings from the Ludhiana to New Delhi Alliance Air flight AI-9838 started on Wednesday.

The 70-seater turbo propeller ATR aircraft will depart from Ludhiana at 4:45 PM and arrive in New Delhi at 5:55 PM. The price of 50% of the 35 tickets is capped at ₹2,079 under the government’s Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik scheme that is aimed at promoting inexpensive regional connectivity.

The remaining seats will be priced depending upon the demand, sources said. Since its last regular flight, operated by Air India to Delhi on May 16,2014, the Sahnewal Airport has been operating chartered flights at a considerable cost to the exchequer. So far, business houses have been using the airport to park their chartered planes. Spread over 127.5 acres, the airport has a 4,800-foot runway.

S ah new al airport director AN Sharma said all arrangements were in place for the flight on September 2. Ludhiana deputy commissioner Pradeep Agarwal had visited the airport a fortnight ago to review the approach road, and had directed measures to beautify it. While the marker lines on the runway were freshly painted, security at the airport has also been revived. HTC