NASHIK: Jet Airways today began a direct tri-weekly flight from the Ojhar airport here to the national Capital under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS).
With this, 30 small towns are connected under the RCS.
Jet will operate a 168-seater aircraft on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from the city, Raj Sivakumar, senior vice- president, network planning and revenue management at the airline, told reporters.
A flight carrying 119 passengers departed Ojhar for New Delhi at 1435 hrs and landed at the Indira Gandhi airport at 1625 hrs, while a plane carrying 128 passengers from New Delhi landed at the Ojhar airport at 1405 hrs.
One-way economy fare on the route under the RCS starts at Rs 2,980, Sivakumar added.
The move will boost religious tourism as the Nashik airport is closer to popular temples like Shirdi, Shani Shinganapur, Mahur and Pandharpur.
He said the flight will enhance cargo capacity per flight to 7,500 kg a week, allowing exporters to now send their consignments to multiple domestic and international destinations via New Delhi.
Majority of exports from the city consist of fruits & vegetables, mushrooms, auto spares, engineering goods, small machine parts and pharma, he said.
Under the RCS, Jet recently launched a service on the Allahabad-Lucknow-Patna sector.
It will also launch a tri- weekly flight in the Allahabad-Nagpur-Indore sector from tomorrow.
Nashik, 150 km off Mumbai, is the wine capital of the country as it is home to over half of the vineyards and wineries.
The city is also a defence and aerospace manufacturing hub with the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics running a plant near the airport.