Soon, fly to Singapore, Bangkok, directly from Chandigarh

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 31

Come 2017, the Chandigarh international airport in Mohali will be spreading its wings by connecting two new international destinations and four new domestic stations with direct flights from here.

While two more international direct flights to two most sought-after global tourist destinations – Singapore and Bangkok— will start taking off from Chandigarh in March, the direct flights to and fro from Goa, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad will also start taking off in February and March.

With this, Chandigarh will have four international flights (two international direct flights to Sharjah (thrice a week) and Dubai daily are already flying since September this year), while the number of domestic flights daily will go up to 25.

Today, Chandigarh was connected directly to Leh with Air India (AI), launching a flight between Leh and Chandigarh. The first flight (AI-457) departed from Leh at 08:05 hours and arrived here at 09:00 hours. In the return journey, the flight (AI-458) took off from Chandigarh at 09:40 hours and landed in Leh at 10:20 hours. The flight, operated by an A-319 Airbus, will fly on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday every week.

Sharing the airport expansion plans for 2017 with The Tribune here today, the airport CEO, Suneel Dutt said besides adding more international and domestic flights, as per the demand and viability, a duty-free shop and more retail shops would also open at the international terminal in the coming days. Also, the international cargo and another aerobridge, which will be the third here, would begin operations in 2017. The domestic cargo and two aerobridges are already functioning here.

The airport CEO said there are also plans to beautify the international airport terminal further with the expansion of its green belt in the New Year.

The newly-constructed integrated terminal building of Chandigarh international airport had already bagged the prestigious Vishwakarma Award for best construction project.

The new terminal had been awarded for being the best project for well-developed landscapes and interior with art, paintings and mural works. Inaugurated on September 11, 2015, the new international airport had taken off in September, 2016, with the operation of two international flights to Sharjah and Dubai.

The terminal building can handle 1,600 passengers during peak hours, with an annual capacity of 4.5 million. Fully air-conditioned and equipped with modern facilities, the new building has the facility of three aerobridges, four baggage carousels, 14 elevators, six escalators and 48 check-in counters. The parking area has the capacity for 500 cars and a separate provision for VIP car park and bus parking. Aircraft parking main apron and the cargo apron has a capacity of 10 C-type aircraft and one E-type aircraft at a time. The interior of the airport is decorated with art and mural works depicting the heritage and culture of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

AI to launch int’l flights

While two new international flights to Singapore and Bangkok will be operated by Air India, the operators for four new domestic flights to Goa, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai are in the stage of being finalised. “We have got the requisite clearances for direct international flights to Singapore and Bangkok from Chandigarh and they have been scheduled to take off before the end of March next,” Air India Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD), Ashwani Lohani, said.

Keeping in view the potential destinations, Air India will launch direct flights between Chandigarh and Singapore, Bangkok thrice a week.