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Kangra, Salem among Deccan’s new stops
Raghvendra RaoPosted online: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print  Email
NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 21: As it flew the first civil aircraft to Pathankot, bringing the strategically located Punjab district on the country's civil aviation map, low-cost carrier Air Deccan spelt plans to fly to many other destinations where no airline goes on date. In the process, the airline made it clear its strategy was to develop regional routes in order to augment its traffic on trunk routes.

"We have plans to begin operations to Kangra, Jamshedpur, Bodhgaya, Cooch Behar, Mysore, Salem and Ludhiana in the near future. Kangra airport is ready and all clearances have been obtained for the airport at Jamshedpur which is a private airport owned by Tatas," Air Deccan's managing director G.R. Gopinath told The Indian Express. Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel also confirmed to this paper that operations at Kangra were likely to begin in 2-3 months with Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra saying that the runway and terminal building were almost ready there.

Air Deccan had recently begun flights to Kullu which the airline claims is running packed with a 95 per cent load-factor ever since its launch. "We hope to begin operations on Kolkata-Jamshedpur, Kolkata-Bodhgaya and Chennai-Salem sectors soon," Gopinath added saying that Air Deccan was in talks with the government to begin operations at 15-odd airports across the country.

Emphasising the need to break the Delhi-Mumbai centric traffic patterns, Gopinath said that the way forward "was to go to small towns like Dehradun, Gwalior, Kolhapur, Belgaum and Hubli". "The idea is to develop regional connectivity so that it helps your trunk route business. Otherwise, we will only keep on cannibalizing Jet Airways and Indian Airlines. For instance, if you have a Delhi-Pathankot flight, a passenger wanting to fly from Pathankot to Mumbai will now have the option to fly with us from Pathankot to Delhi and get a connecting flight to Mumbai," Gopinath said.

On the commercial viability of having daily flights on a route like Delhi-Pathankot, Gopinath said, "We think that providing connectivity to Pathankot will help us in the longer run. The fact that it is strategically located, bordering Jammu, Himachal Pradesh and also has a huge defence establishment will provide us an opportunity to both the business travelers and the tourists."

Pathankot terminal to serve Punjab, HP

Developed at a cost of Rs 35 crore, the newly constructed terminal building at Pathankot Airport was inaugurated by Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel today. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Minister of State for Industry Ashwani Kumar, and Lok Sabha MP Vinod Khanna were also present on the occasion. The centrally air-conditioned terminal building with a peak hour capacity to handle 300 passengers and aircraft apron for 3 A-320 class of aircraft at a time has been constructed by Airports Authority of India (AAI) to facilitate the states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and cater to increased flow of tourists to Dalhousie and Dharamshala. Land for the airport has been provided by both Haryana and Himachal Pradesh governments.

raghvendra.rao@expressindia.com