Nagpur fails to lure foreign airlines to its airport

Nagpur: The Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport at Nagpur has remained a?Internationala only in name. Air Arabia operates the lone international flight from city to Sharjah. Passengers and even airport officials have started asking when new international flights announced by Mihan India Ltd (MIL), the airport operator company, will start from Nagpur airport.
MIL officials have many times announced that Nagpur may soon have flights to Singapore, Bangkok, Malaysia and Dubai. Nagpur airport was accorded international airport status three years ago.
It saw operations of flights to four international destinations including Qatar Airways flight to Doha, Air India Express to Dubai, Air India Bangkok and Air Arabia to Sharjah. Initially, the flights received good response as flyers from neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh preferring to board from Nagpur. It was convenient for them to travel to Nagpur by road and take low-cost flight to international destinations.
However, when recession hit, international flights were rapidly withdrawn with Qatar Airways first to go. Then Air India suspended operations and Air India Express too followed.
13/10/11 Sachin Dravekar/Times of India

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Categories: airports Oct 2011, Foreign Oct 2011