Diamond City may get third airline operator in Air Asia India

SURAT:

If all goes well

, the

Diamond City

may get a third airline operator in Air Asia India in the next couple of months.

Senior officials from

Air Asia India Private Limited

led by head of commercial Kiran Jain visited the city and organized a series of meetings with the stakeholders from the trade and industry, private organizations, non-governmental organizations and airport groups crusading for the increased air connectivity from Surat on Thursday.

The visit of Air Asia India team is credited to the ‘We Work for a Working Airport at Surat’ (WWWAS), a Facebook group, crusading for the increased air connectivity and international airport from the past many years. The group members were constantly in touch with senior officials in Bengaluru and they convinced them to visit Surat to explore traffic and business potential.

Talking to TOI, WWWAS member Sanjay Jain said, “We have given a detailed presentation to the Air Asia India team on the potential routes and air traffic. We have also shared the passenger traffic data of the last two years and the team members were impressed with the kind of phenomenal increase.”

Jain added, “The airline has shown its interest in operating on the destinations, including Indore, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Pune. They will be submitting a detailed report to the group CEO in Bengaluru for final approval.”

At present, Surat airport is served by Spice Jet and Air India and the intra-state operator Ventura Airlines. There are 12 scheduled daily flights and 11 non-scheduled daily flights from the airport, catering to more than 60,000 passengers per month.

The Air Asia India officials also met the industry leaders at the

Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry

(SGCCI).

Diamond barons, including chairman of Venus Jewels Sevantibhai Shah and chairman of Shree Ramkrishna Export Govind Dholakia, talked about the efforts of the diamond barons in starting the intra-state air connectivity from Surat and its successful operation.

Venus Jewels chairman said, “Apart from domestic destinations, Air Asia India should also look at the international sectors like Singapore and Hong Kong. These are the two destinations where they can get sizeable number of visitors from Surat and south Gujarat.”