PUDUCHERRY: Operations of the Puducherry Airport are set to expand after SpiceJet (SJ) and Alliance Air (AA) have announced their decisions to operate flights to Kochi and Tirupati and additional flights to Bengaluru. Currently, SJ operates daily flights on Hyderabad-Puducherry-Bengaluru with its Q400 Bombardier aircraft.
SJ's 78-seater Q400 flights will operate to Kochi on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and Tirupati on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. AA will operate daily flights to Bengaluru on the 70-seater ATR-72 aircraft.
After the airline operators announced their plans, the flight schedule was drawn up by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and approved by the Civil Aviation ministry, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister for K Lakshminarayanan told TNIE. On final clearance, operations will begin by the end of October or November, he added. The schedule will be effective from October, this year to March, 2023 on different routes.
According to Lakshminarayanan, the flights that are not under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) would be operating on their own. "As tourism is encouraging, the flight operators have been persuaded to operate on these routes. If found unviable, the government can take up the matter with the civil aviation ministry for inclusion of the routes under the RCS," he added.
With new routes and additional flights, the timing for departure and arrival for the existing flights have been altered from October 30. SJ flights from Bengaluru will arrive in Puducherry 11.20 am, and take off at 3.15 pm for Bengaluru. Similarly, they will arrive in Puducherry at 5.15 pm and depart at 5.40 pm to Hyderabad. SJ planes to Kochi will depart from Puducherry at 11.45 am and arrive at 2.45 pm. The flight to Tirupati will depart at 11.45 pm and arrive at 2 pm at Puducherry. The AA flights to Bengaluru will arrive at 5.30 pm and depart at 6 pm.
Meanwhile, the land acquisition for expansion of the Airport runway is under way. On directions from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Civil Aviation, the AAI sent a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to the Centre as per the revised Master Plan, said Lakshminarayanan. The MHA directed the UT government to include central assistance of around Rs 500 crore for acquisition in the budget for 2022-2023 and send a proposal for it along with the budget, he said adding that it has been sent. The MHA also sent letters to the Tamil Nadu government on the matter, as a greater part of the land required is situated in TN, adjoining the airport. The runway expansion involves 30 acres in Puducherry, and 395 acres in TN, in two phases.