Chandigarh gets connected to hot tourist destinations

Chandigarh: City beautiful was connected with the hot tourist destinations of the region, Kullu, Dharamsala and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, as a private airline commenced its flights for these stations on Thursday.
Hyderabad based IIC Technologies Ltd, which has the air operator permit (AOP) has launch its 9-seater aircraft for these station after it was approached by the authorities.
As per the schedule of these flights, released by the airport authorities on Thursday, the flight would start its operations at 8.50 am from Chandigarh airport and would land at Bhuntar (Kullu) airport at 9.30 am. The fare between Chandigarh-Bhuntar would be Rs 7999. The same flight would come back to Chandigarh at 10.30 am.
Thereafter, the flight would take off for Shimla at 10.50 and would land at Shimla at 11.10 am. The fare between Chandigarh-Shimla flight would be Rs 2499. From Shimla the flight would take off for Gaggal airport Dharamshala at 11.30 am and would land at 12.30 am. Fare of Shimla-Gaggal has been fixed Rs 7999. The same flight would return back to Shimla at 2 pm. Thereafter, the flight would take off for Chandigarh at 2.20 pm and would land in city at 2.40 pm.
Chief executive officer of the Chandigarh international airport, Sunil Dutt, however, explained that that it is a non-schedule airline operator and a charter flight. He further informed that initially they are keeping tentative timings, which would be flexible as per the convenience of the passengers. The timings would also depend on weather, temperature, airport operations etc, he added.
Sources said that if the flight receives response from passengers, more airlines with bigger aircraft may start their flights on these routes.
Director of Bhuntar airport, A N Sharma told TOI that they are ecstatic about the new air flight, which connect most sought after destinations of the state. But the success would depend on the response from the passengers, Sharma added.
The flight, if gets response from passengers, would not only a big boost for the tourism but the people from Chandigarh would also be able to reach favorite tourist destination in a short period. At present there is no air connectivity between Chandigarh to Kullu-Manali, Dharamshala and Shimla.
Bhunter airport in Kullu is the nearest airport connecting the tourist destination of Kullu and Manali from the rest of the country through air routes and new flight is expected to fetch tourists.
Earlier, the low cost MDLR had launched Kullu-Chandigarh flight in 2008 but the same was discontinued in the beginning of 2009 after MDLR owner Gopal Kanda had entered in politics and became a minister in Haryana government.
Similarly, Chandigarh-Dharamshala flight would also be beneficial for the foreign as well as domestic tourists.
It would also benefit the cricket fans visiting Dharamshala for IPL matches. As of now, they have travel by road for around six hours continuously from Chandigarh via taxi, own vehicles or by bus.
Even, Shimla, which takes around 3 hours to reach by road from Chandigarh, would also be just 20 minutes away from Chandigarh.