'Start flights from any Maharashtra city'

Surat: Three months ago, a top official from one of the most viable private airline companies put up a proposal for expansion of his carrier to five different sectors of the country. As required he put up a joint proposal to civil aviation ministry for permission to fly commercially on these sectors. Two of the routes were in East and North East, two in the South and one in Western India. The proposal for Western India was a daily flight from Surat to Delhi. Another airline put up a plan for daily flight from Bangalore to Ahmedabad via Surat on both sides.
For the first airline, three proposals were sanctioned but they were told to forget Surat and instead begin a flight from a city in Maharashtra that has population of just seven lakh. However, when it came to the official reply, the airline is still waiting for that.
As many as five top private carriers of the country apart from Air India showed interest in starting flights from Surat. After several rounds of meetings, all of them wanted their share of the pie and were more than willing to begin at earliest.
"If we are asked to take a final call on the issue, we will begin in 15 days," said a top official handling the Western sector operations of a private carrier. "But, the problem is if we put the name of Surat, we don't get a reply at all. How can you expect us to get taxiing space and parking space on Surat airport? At what cost? Do you think, required time slots would be granted by the aviation ministry?" he asked.
30/01/11 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jan 2011