Patna/Bhubaneswar: Air India Express on Wednesday expanded its direct flight network with maiden operations for Bhubaneswar, the state capital of Odisha, Bengaluru and Hyderabad from Patna.
To mark the occasion, a celebratory event was held at Patna airport, where the inaugural flights to Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, and Hyderabad were launched.
The flight from Bengaluru arrived at Patna at 9 am and departed at 9.30 am, while that of Hyderabad landed at 1.15 pm and took off at 1.45 pm. The third plane from Bhubaneswar reached the Patna airport at 4.30 pm and took off at 5 pm, the TOI reported, quoting an Air India official.
A total of 170, 165 and 162 seats were booked in the Bengaluru-, Hyderabad- and Bhubaneshwar-bound flights respectively, the official added.
The flight to Bhubaneswar will depart at 2.55 pm and land in Patna at 4.20 pm.
In December, the airline had announced the launch of four new routes from Bhubaneswar as a part of the airline’s expansion plan in eastern India. The services to Jaipur and Kochi commenced on January 3, followed by the launch of flights to Lucknow on January 4 and Patna on January 15.
The Bhubaneswar-Jaipur flight operates four days a week – Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, while the Bhubaneswar-Kochi and Bhubaneswar-Patna flights daily. The Bhubaneswar-Lucknow flights operates on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
“With these additions, Bhubaneswar directly connects 11 domestic destinations and offers seamless one-stop connections to 19 additional domestic and 10 international locations, including major hubs like Dubai, Singapore, and Riyadh,” the airline said in a post on X.
It operates weekly flights from Bhubaneswar, connecting the city directly to major destinations including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna, and Pune.
Additionally, the airline, a subsidiary of Air India and a part of the Tata group, has pressed into service its new aircraft showcasing a stunning Ikat-inspired tail design as a tribute to Odisha’s age-old craft of “tying and binding” threads into intricate art.
