Regional air service to 8 places to start from Hindon in May

NEW DELHI: Come May and a pilgrimage to Ayodhya and or chilling out in the cool climes of Pithoragarh could be a short subsidised flight away from the Hindon Air Force base near Delhi. Prime Minister Modi will inaugurate the civil enclave terminal built by Airports Authority of India (AAI) at this IAF base on Friday. Regular service under ude desh ka aam nagrik (Udan) — on which fares are capped at Rs 2,500 per hour of flying for a certain number of seats on each flight — will begin to eight airports from May.

“The airports likely to be connected to Hindon from May onwards are: Gulbarga,

Nashik

, Hubali, Shimla, Pithoragarh, Jamnagar, Kannur and Faizabad by IndiGo and some small airlines. Flights should begin in the first or second week of May. We informed airlines that had won routes from Hindon under regional air connectivity scheme the airport will be ready by March 10 and they have indicated the timeframe for beginning flights after arranging for aircraft, pilots and getting all clearances,” said a senior AAI official.

RCS flights will see a gradual ramp up from Hindon. Apart from the eight airport mentioned earlier, the other routes awarded from this IAF base under UDAN include: Lucknow-Hindon-Kolkata-Jorhat; Hindon-Bhopal-Ozar (Nasik); Hindon-Jaisalmer-Udaipur; Hindon-Gorakhur-Allahabad; Hindon-Allahabad-Kolkata; Hindon-Kannur; Ozar (Nasik)-Hindon and Tirupati-Hubli-Hindon. Most of these new flights will be by IndiGo and a couple of small, new players.

The airport will be able to handle aircraft which carry less than 80 passengers. Since Delhi IGI Airport does not have free slots, it was unable to accommodate new RCS flights. Hindon will handle these flights till IGIA’s expansion work to have a fourth runway and a bigger terminal 1 is completed in three to four years.

AAI has constructed a civil terminal at a cost of Rs 45.2 crore. Hindon’s civil terminal building is air-conditioned and a pre-engineered structure built in an area of 3,500 square metres. The terminal will have a peak capacity to handle 300 passengers per hour (150 departing and as many arriving). It will have all facilities like check-in concourse, security hold area, baggage handling system and commercial outlets. Air traffic control for the regional flights operating from here will be provided by the IAF ATC at Hindon.