BAMRAULI-BHUBANESHWAR, BHOPAL FLIGHTS BY MARCH-END

PRAYAGRAJ: Citizens can now look forward to flying directly to Bhubaneshwar and Bhopal soon. Flights to these two cities are set to start from Bamrauli airport by March-end.

IndiGo Airlines is all set to start air connectivity to these two cities from the end of this month, officials said. However, the schedule for flights to Dehradun has not yet been cleared because of which air connectivity to this city will have to wait for some more time, they added.

According to the officials of Airport Authority of India (AAI), in order to start a direct flight from the civil enclave of Prayagraj, the slots of Bhubaneswar and Bhopal have been decided.

As per the flight schedule, direct air service will now start for Bhopal and back to Prayagraj from March 28. On the same date, the direct flight from Bhubaneshwar to Prayagraj will begin while the flight from Prayagraj to Bhubaneswar will start from March 29.

According to Indigo Airlines officials, direct flight service to Dehradun is still in the proposal stage.

Anubhav Bhattacharya, assistant manager, IndiGo Airlines, said that the flight to Dehradun is not yet starting as the clearance has not been received but the service will also start soon. He added that the airline is expecting 40% occupancy in the maiden flight for the two cities of Bhubaneswar and Bhopal.

The flight from Bhopal to Prayagraj will depart at 9.20 am from Bhopal and reach Prayagraj at 10.55 am. In its return journey, the flight from Prayagraj to Bhopal will take off at 11.55 am and will reach Bhopal at 12.55 pm.

Similarly, the direct flight from Bhubaneswar to Prayagraj will take off from the capital of Odisha at 7.55 am on March 28 and after 2 hours and 15 minutes will reach Prayagraj at 10.05 am. From March 29, the direct flight to Bhubaneswar will leave Prayagraj at 10.30am.

Prayagraj already has flights to New Delhi (two daily all through the week), Mumbai, Bengaluru, Raipur, Kolkata, Pune and Gorakhpur running at present.