To boost regional air connectivity in the northeast region, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia inaugurated two new international routes under the regional air connectivity UDAN scheme. Scindia and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen (Retd) V K Singh inaugurated three flights connecting five cities of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Mizoram. The flights connecting Imphal-Aizawl-Imphal and Lilabari-Ziro-Lilabari commenced on Sunday while the services on the Shillong-Lilabari-Shillong route will start today (October 31). These flights have been started under the regional air connectivity scheme UDAN. Under international UDAN, two new routes Agartala-Chittagong-Agartala and Imphal-Mandalay-Imphal will be operationalized.
This will expand the scope of air connectivity in the North Eastern states from the national to the international level, Scindia said. Chittagong is in Bangladesh and Mandalay is in Myanmar. The Union government has given special emphasis on air connectivity for the North Eastern region, he said, adding that in the last eight years, seven airports have been developed in the region.
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With the UDAN scheme in force, aircraft movement in the North East from August 2017 to August 2022 rose to 7973 flights, which is an increase of 36 percent, higher than the growth rates in the East, West, North, and South zones.
Recently, Flybig airline announced the commencement of flight operations between Imphal and Guwahati via Arunachal Pradesh’s Tezu town. Regional airlines’ CMD Sanjay Mandavia stated that they further plan to connect Imphal with major cities in eastern India. Flybig airlines operate 18 daily flights having Guwahati as its main hub.
It is connecting Guwahati to seven destinations which include Tezu, Pasighat, Rupsi, Agartala, Dibrugarh, Kolkata, and Patna. Earlier, FlyBig airlines in May started its flight services on the Shillong-Delhi route using its Q400 aircraft.
(With inputs from PTI)
