The number of flights operating in and out of the Coimbatore International Airport has increased to 12 per day and the additional flights to Chennai and Bengaluru have made passengers happy.
Coimbatore: The number of flights operating in and out of the Coimbatore International Airport has increased to 12 per day and the additional flights to Chennai and Bengaluru have made passengers happy.
Flight services in the domestic sector has started increasing with 12 flights (not including the Vande Bharat, cargo and non-scheduled flights) being operated each day at the Coimbatore International Airport.
Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, in order to cater to the various essential needs of passengers, the Ministry of Civil Aviation gave permission to commence domestic flight services and Guidelines were also issued.
Initially there was a very slow response from both the airlines and passengers in commencing the services. Only 5 flights were operated from the Coimbatore airport.
As some of the states such as Karnataka had started to ease down the restrictions, more flight services have been started.
Alliance Air announced to restart it's service between Coimbatore and Bengaluru from yesterday(August 27). Indigo Airlines' new second flight 6E-7743/7744 started operation from August 26, 2020. This flight arrives from Bengaluru at 12:25 pm and departs to Bengaluru at 01:10 pm.
Indigo airlines has also introduced a new flight between Coimbatore and Chennai 6e-7741/7742 which started its operation on August 22. This flight arrives from Chennai at 5:10 pm and departs from Coimbatore to Chennai at 7:30 pm.
Introduction of new service's especially between Chennai and Bengaluru has made passengers happy.
Speaking about this, airport officials said, "The flight services have increased in the domestic sector. At present services are provided to Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Today 12 flights were operated in the domestic side. Apart from this Cargo flights and non scheduled flight services are also witnessed. Today one cargo flight and one non-scheduled flight movement from Sharjah (Vande Bharat) were witnessed",officials said.
* Alliance Air reduces fare to Bengaluru
Initially when Alliance Air announced the service between Coimbatore and Bengaluru the passengers were upset since fare was too costly. Fares were fixed at Rs. 4,476 from Coimbatore andRs. 4,281 from Bengaluru.
Whereas now it has reduced the fare to Rs. 3,478 from Coimbatore and Rs. 3,283 from Bengaluru.
This has given an interim relief to the passengers and since Indigo has also introduced its second flight service between Coimbatore and Bengaluru we can expect further reductionin fares which will help the passengers in a big way during this crisis.
As per the official data released by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) 24 flights were operated during April, 112 flights during May, 396 flights during June and 583 flights during July at the Coimbatore International Airport.