Regular flight from Kullu to Chandigarh begins today

Our Correspondent

Kullu, October 13

Air India started its regular flight operations between Kullu and Chandigarh from today. Kullu Air India station manager Dinesh Bhardwaj said daily flights would be operated between Kullu and Chandigarh, except on Sundays. He said the operations were being carried out using the same 70-seater ATR-72 aircraft that was presently operating between Kullu and Delhi.

Dinesh said the flight from Delhi arrived at Kullu at 8.05 am and then departed for Chandigarh at 8.35 am. It arrived at Chandigarh at 9.20 am, returned to Kullu at 9.50 am and landed at 10.35 am. Then it departed to Delhi at 11.05 am.

The station manager said 11 passengers went from Kullu to Chandigarh and 12 came from Chandigarh to Kullu today. The 70-seater aircraft is allowed to ferry around 30 passengers while departing from Kullu due to load stipulation because of the short runway. The aircraft is allowed to bring in around 40 passengers while landing at the Kullu-Manali airport in Bhuntar.

Earlier, the airline had introduced the lowest fare between Kullu and Chandigarh for over Rs 10,000, but now it is providing the ticket for around Rs 5,200 for October. The lowest fare for December and January is around Rs 5,200 and for November, it is Rs 10,000.

The airline has priced a few seats around Rs 5,200 and the fare increases as cheaper tickets are booked. The highest fare has been fixed at Rs 18,000 for one-way travel between Kullu and Chandigarh.

Those associated with the tourism industry here lauded the efforts of Air India to revive the Chandigarh flight after a span of about two decades. They said the air connectivity with Chandigarh would boost the tourist influx into the valley and also provide another economical option for commuters to travel by air from Kullu.

Travel agents of the area urged that the fare for the 45-minute flight between Kullu and Chandigarh should be capped below Rs 2,500. Earlier, the government had announced to put a cap on fare for flights of less than one-hour duration to Rs 2,500 under the Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik scheme. During the inaugural flight to Chandigarh on October 5, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha had stated that the Kullu-Chandigarh sector would be included in the second version of the scheme and the fare would be reduced further.