Despite major facelift, non-metro airports facing crisis

New Delhi: Recession in the aviation industry on account of rising operational costs has taken its toll on non-metro airports, as national and international carriers have reduced flights to these destinations, despite these airports having been given major facelifts. Dr. Ambedkar International Airport, at Nagpur in Maharashtra - also coming up as an international cargo hub - now receives only 22 flights daily. The airport received 29 flights till June-end.
Major scheduled and low-cost carriers have withdrawn seven flights in the past month to this non-metro international airport.
India’s national carrier, Air India, which generally flies to non-metro and other non-profitable routes, said it too has cut flights to these destinations to cut down on the losses.
Air India has cancelled its Nagpur-Bangkok international flight from Nagpur.
The non-metro international airport at Rajasansi in Amritsar, Punjab, also faces a similar problem. An official with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) here said many international and domestic flights to Rajasansi have been cancelled.
Trans-Aero Airlines, which had three weekly flights to Moscow from Amritsar, has suspended its operations temporarily.
Slovakia Airlines has also cancelled its direct flight to Bratislava from here this season, apart from temporarily suspending several other uneconomical flights.
The only non-metro airport not to have seen any flight reduction is the one at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.
03/08/08 Sanjay Singh/IANS/Thaindian.com, Thailand

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Categories: Airports Aug 2008