Air India starts booking for first international flight from Chandigarh

Air India officials said they have received an overwhelming response from the passengers for its first flight. “People have started booking for the first flight. Apart from single bookings, there are group bookings as well,” M R Jindal, station manager, Air India in Chandigarh said.

On Wednesday, the Air India announced that they would start the international operations from the city with its Sharjah flight. Last month, the airlines had started booking for its first direct non-stop daily flight from Chandigarh to Dubai from September 26.

Jindal said the airlines would give all the efforts to give the best performance. “We are also expecting a good support from the people,” he said.

The flight, according to Air India, will operate three days a week – Monday ,Thursday and Saturday.

Departure from Sharjah for the flight is 1245 hours and arrival in Chandigarh will be 1715 hours. The departure from Chandigarh for Sharjah will be at 1815 hours and arrival at Sharjah would be 2000 hours.

Sunil Dutt, chief executive officer, Chandigarh International Airport, said with two international flights from the city, would be a testing time for the region. “Once it will be successful, more airlines will show their interest to start international operations from the city,” he said.

The international flights operations from the city was announced by the Indigo last month after the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while hearing a petition, slammed the Airport Authority of India, the Union civil aviation ministry, the governments of Punjab and Haryana, private airlines and the Chandigarh Airport Authority for not starting international flights from the city.

In September last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new terminal of the Chandigarh International Airport, which was constructed at a cost of Rs 1,400 crore.