Centre Likely To Scrap Flight Contract Of Air Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Taking strong exception to the poor management of the Air Odisha airline company, which has failed to restore its regular flight to and from the Jharsuguda Airport, the Centre is most likely to scrap the flight contract of the company.

Talking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said: “Air Odisha is a bad company. The Civil Aviation Ministry is reviewing its status and if necessary, steps would be taken to cancel its flight contract and a fresh tender would be floated for a regular flight from the Jharsuguda Airport. The
ministry is in talks with other airline companies like Indian Airlines, SpiceJet and IndiGo, which will start a regular flight if they get commercial success. Since Jharsuguda Airport has passenger potential, I hope that these airlines would start their operation from
this airport very soon.”

Air Odisha had earlier announced to start flight operations to and from the Jharsuguda Airport using the Beechcraft 1900 D, a 19-seater aircraft.

However, the company later expressed its inability to operate its flight citing technical issues with aircraft, shortage of pilots and engineers and non-availability of slots.

Senior Congress leader and Jharsuguda MLA, Naba Das had warned that the people of western Odisha will take to the streets if the Jharsuguda Airport is not made operational within a month.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had dedicated the airport, included in
the UDAN scheme, to the nation on September 22.