WWWAS urges govt to bat for Surat-Delhi Airbus morning flight

Surat: 'We Want Working Airport at Surat' (WWWAS) members have urged the state government to intervene with Air India and central government for providing daily Airbus operation between Surat and Delhi in the morning and introduction of two flights to Mumbai with easy connections to Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.
The 'WWWAS', a Facebook group having more than 57,000 members, submitted a memorandum to Gujarat's civil aviation minister Saurabh Patel during his visit to the airport here to flag off the Surat-Bhavnagar inaugural flight on Saturday.
The 'WWWAS' members said the Diamond City having a population of 50 lakh is the eighth largest city with an estimated GDP of $75 billion in the country. Still, the city has just two flights a day to New Delhi and three days a week flight to Mumbai. On the other hand, cities like Vadodara, Bhopal, Indore and Visakhapatnam having a population base between 13 lakh and 25 lakh are well-connected with domestic and international destinations.
The group has stated that the annual air traffic in Surat is estimated at 97,500 passengers. In 2015-16, Surtis spent Rs1,400 crore on international travel and Rs350 crore on domestic travel from Surat, Ahmedabad and Mumbai airports.
Air India, in the last six months has earned more than Rs3 crore from Surat, but has refused to enhance connectivity.
"We have been fighting for air connectivity for the last so many years, but our voices have not been heard at the state and central government levels. We were hoping that Gujarat's civil aviation minister would make some announcements for Surat, but are disappointed," said 'WWWAS' member Sanjay Jain.
"We are sorry to say that Gujarat government is not supporting the cause of Surat's aviation wholeheartedly. Our demands have been continuously ignored by the state government," he added.