Bhubaneswar: The Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) authorities announced the launch of a direct flight between Bhubaneswar and Ahmedabad to be operated by popular low-cost airline Indigo.
“IndiGo will start direct flight operations between Bhubaneswar and Ahmedabad within a few days,” airport director Suresh Chandra Hota said on Thursday.
The authorities have urged two airlines — IndiGo and AirAsia — to start operations between Bhubaneswar and Pune, he added.
Since there are no slots open for Pune, BPIA authorities have requested two airlines to connect Pune from Kolkata via Bhubaneswar, sources said.
Indigo will also be starting a new flight between Bhubaneswar and Kolkata from August 1. The airline will leave Bhubaneswar at 5.25 am on daily basis, taking the total number of flights between the cities to nine.
Ahmedabad, hence, will become the 9th city to be directly connected to Bhubaneswar. There are direct flights between Bhubaneswar and New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Visakhapatnam and Kuala Lumpur.
Recently, Air India has withdrawn direct flights to Bangkok from here citing operational issues. While the suspension is said to be temporary, the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HARO) has requested the Ministry of Civil Aviation to reintroduce the direct flight service at the earliest.
The BPIA has seen a growth of 39.4 percent in 2017-18 as compared to the previous year in terms of total passengers handled, according to data from the Civil Aviation Ministry.
