Jharsuguda: After three months’ suspension, flight operations from the newly-built Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) Airport in Jharsuguda are likely to be resumed from the first week of January next year.
Director of VSS Airport SK Chouhan informed the media here on Tuesday.
He said the exact date of resumption of flights will be known after the opening of the tender on December 31.
“The airport will now handle bigger flights like the Boeing,” he added.
He further said the preliminary survey by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had revealed willingness among passengers for introduction of flights from Jharsuguda to New Delhi, Kolkata, Raipur, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar.
Quoting sources, Chouhan said, three airline companies have expressed interest to start the schedule and Boeing flights from Jharsuguda. “Once the tender process is completed, flight operations will resume from the first week of January, which will make the airport a major gateway of western Odisha,” he pointed out.
Apart from this, since Government Aviation and Training Institute (GATI) at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar has limited scope for conducting training as it creates traffic problem, the AAI has also given in-principle approval to set up a satellite base of the institute at Jharsuguda airport, he added.
The AAI had cancelled UDAN (Ude Deshka Aam Nagrik) licence of Air Odisha on November 19 after the latter, on the pretext of a technical glitch, stopped regular flights from the Jharsuguda airport from October 6.
The Prime Minister had dedicated the airport to the nation and flagged off a UDAN flight operated by Air Odisha on September 22.
