ROURKELA: Amid erratic flight services by Alliance Air, the Commerce and Transport department has invited other airlines with the offer of incentives to operate on the existing Rourkela-Kolkata and Bhubaneswar-Jharsuguda routes.
In an advertisement notice on March 13, the department invited interested commercial airliners to operate scheduled flights on specified existing domestic round trip routes for enhanced air connectivity.
The notice comes after the state government in October last year declared the New Destination Policy 2025 to facilitate establishment of air services to new destinations from airports in Odisha by providing viability gap funding (VGF)/incentives.
The advertisement said for enhancement of air connectivity on certain existing routes, the Commerce and Transport department invites proposals from interested commercial airlines to operate scheduled flights (maximum seven flights per week) on domestic round trip routes.
The maximum VGF/incentives provided for each route per trip would be as per the new policy.
Accordingly, the interested parties would operate from the origination destinations of Rourkela to Kolkata and Bhubaneswar to Jharsuguda. The interested airline operators have also been asked to submit applications for new destinations as per their assessment within the provision of the policy.
Incidentally, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has appointed Alliance Air as the selected airline operator under the regional connectivity scheme UDAN for Rourkela-Bhubaneswar route. The airliner had introduced commercial flight operation to Rourkela from January 7, 2023 with its single ATR-72 aircraft positioned at Kolkata base station.
Sources said the ATR-72 aircraft from Kolkata faces a hectic flight schedule daily as it covers the Northeast states along with West Bengal and Odisha. Recently, it started flight services between Rourkela and Kolkata thrice a week with adjustment of its flight routes.
However, due to the constraint of operating with a single ATR-72 aircraft along with visibility issues at Rourkela, flights are getting cancelled frequently on short notice leaving fliers in the lurch.
President of Sachetan Nagarik Manch Bimal Bisi welcomed the Odisha government’s initiative to invite other airline operators for Rourkela-Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar-Jharsuguda routes. The government has also urged the MoCA to insist on Alliance Air to improve its operations on these routes.