HUBBALLI: The air traffic from Hubballi airport, which had come to standstill after the outbreak of Covid-19, is slowing picking up as flight service on five more sections are likely to restart by the second half of August. Both StarAir and IndiGo Airlines have already announced their schedule and started booking of tickets.
The flight service was suspended from airports in the country, including Hubballi, in March. Though the service was restarted later on Bengaluru and Hindon sections, they were suspended due to lack of passengers. In the mid-June, IndiGo restarted service on Hubballi-Kannur and Hubballi-Goa sections, it later suspended Goa service and added the Bengaluru route. Now, flights are being operated on Hubballi-Bengaluru and Hubballi-Kannur routes from the airport.
Hubballi is one of the important business hubs and hundreds of people have been using the air service for the last couple of years. With the government relaxing the lockdown norms, there is a huge demand from people to restart flight service.
The StarAir had recently announced its plan to operate Embraer flights to Bengaluru and Hindon (New Delhi) from August 16. It also started ticket booking for these two routes. Likewise, IndiGo has also announced restarting of flight service on a few of its old sections and also started ticket booking.
The IndiGo will operate flights to Mangaluru, Mumbai and Ahmedabad from Hubballi, starting from August 25. These routes were very popular before the outbreak of coronavirus and now, there is a huge demand to restart flight service on these routes.
According to airport officials, Hubballi-Mumbai is one of the busiest routes from the airport. The businessmen often fly on this route for business purposes. There were two flights to Mumbai before the enforcement of the lockdown and both were getting a good number of passengers.
Hubballi Airport director Pramod Thakre said: "As of now, flights are being operated on two routes from Hubballi airport. The IndiGo is operating flights to Kannur and Bengaluru. The StarAir has informed us about operating flights to Bengaluru and Hindon (New Delhi) from August 16. We have not got any information from IndiGo about new routes.”