Rourkela: With the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) having signed an Operation and Management (O&M) agreement, the Rourkela airport is likely to begin commercial flight operations from December 5.
The AAI, on behalf of SAIL-Rourkela Steel Plant, will operate and manage the airport.
Flight operation from Rourkela assumes significance with the Steel City all set to host 20 of the 44 matches of the Men’s Hockey World Cup from January 13 to 29 next year. The global event is expected to draw a huge crowd to Rourkela during this period.
Before signing the fresh MoU for operation and management of the airport for commercial use under the RCS-UDAN scheme on October 28, the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) of SAIL had already applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for upgrading the airport’s licence from ARC 2B to ARC 2C to allow operation of ATR-72 aircraft, sources said.
The operation of 19 seaters and the RCS-UDAN initiative had failed as such smaller aircraft were not available with the selected flight operators. Following this, the airport was upgraded with the expansion of the runway, construction of a new apron and taxiway, new terminal building and perimeter wall by the AAI at a cost of Rs 64.24 crore to make it ready for 72 seaters.
Sources further said that Alliance Air has emerged as the selected airline operator for the Rourkela-Bhubaneswar route. Talks are also underway with other airline operators for the Rourkela-Kolkata route.
According to the timeline prepared by the state government to operationalise the Rourkela airport, a dry test run of ATR 72-type aircraft by Alliance Air may take place on November 10.
In view of the mega hockey event, the Civil Aviation Ministry has requested all the scheduled airlines to favourably consider enhancing connectivity to VSS airport at Jharsuguda after Odisha expressed concern over cancellations of Spice Jet flights to Odisha from major Indian cities and urged him to enhance flight frequency/connectivity from important cities to Jharsuguda, especially during the Hockey World Cup to boost access to Rourkela.
