Hindon-pithoragarh flights from Oct 11, services to Shimla likely in December
Flights from terminal close to IAF base will ease congestion at IGI Airport
GHAZIABAD: After a wait of nine months, the Hindon civil air terminal will see commencement of regional flights on October 11.
Officials from the Ghaziabad district administration said that the first flights will be to Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, and flights to other destinations — Hubli and Shimla — will start soon.
Services from the airport was delayed as private airlines initially did not come forward, officials said.
“A review inspection of facilities was taken up on Wednesday. I have directed the municipal corporation to take up cleaning activities outside the terminal, while the internal cleaning will be taken up by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). There is also a proposal of construction of a police post outside the terminal,” said Dr Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate. “Till the time the new post is constructed, there will be a police picket in operation for security. The land is on lease and I have requested a proposal from the AAI to get the land on permanent basis.”
The flight to Pithorgarh will be a nine-seater initially and operated by private airline company Air Heritage.the service will be 60-minutes-long and will operate for all days except Thursdays. According to the airlines website, the flight will be operated at 1pm.
“We opened bookings till October 26 and about 90% seats got filled up in 24 hours. The company has been mandated two routes – Pithoragarh and Shimla. We are targeting to start operations on Shimla route by December,” said Rohit Mathur, its chief executive officer.
Company officials said that the tickets to Pithoragarh were priced at ₹2,270 while tickets from Pithoragarh are priced at ₹ 2,470.
Another private airline, Star Air, will begin services on the Hubli-hindon routine, on November 6, and a 50-seater plane will be used.
“Online bookings have been started through our website and flights will be operational on three days - Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday,” said a spokesperson of the company.
The district magistrate said that he has already sent a proposal for adding three new routes to Lucknow, Prayagraj and Varanasi. “The three routes are popular destination and will help passengers and officials from Ghaziabad, Noida, Meerut and other western UP areas,” he added.
The terminal has come up at a cost of ₹60 crore. The civil terminal is expected to reduce the burden on the Delhi airport.
The civil terminal has come up at Sikandarpur which is adjacent to Hindon airbase. The terminal was constructed as part of Centre’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) which is also known as ‘Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik or UDAN.’
Internal security of the new terminal has been assigned to the Uttar Pradesh police. “Personnel have been specially trained by Bureau of Civil Aviation Security. The outer security cover will be provided by Ghaziabad police,” said Dr Rakesh Kumar Mishra, circle officer (Sahibabad) who is also officiating as civil aviation security officer.