Jharsuguda: Alliance Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, could start flight operations from Veer Surendra Sai Airport beginning March 1, thus bringing the industrial town under the aviation map of the country.
Airport officials hinted at the tentative date of March 1 following the visit of a four-member team of the airlines on Tuesday to check the operational preparedness at the airport and security arrangements.
Flight operations could begin from March 1. The airline will operate an ATR-72 flights, airport officials said.
While indications are that the airline will operate flights to Kolkata and Bhubaneswar to begin with, the airline is yet to confirm the routes. A random check of its website yielded no results on flight to/from Jharsuguda.
Under UDAN 3, the airline is also scheduled to operate flights from the industrial city to Raipur, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata.
Alliance Air would be the first airline to operate from the city after winning the bid under the UDAN 3 scheme.
Budget carrier SpiceJet will begin operations from here from March 31, airport director S K Chouhan had earlier said.
The Jharsuguda airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 22, last year. However, operations stopped at the airport after around 15 days as Air Odisha airline suspended its flight services.
