Shimla airport open for non-scheduled flights

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 1

The mobile tower, which was proving to be the last hitch in the resumption of commercial flights from Jubbarhatti airport, near here, was today removed from a place close to the runway.

Following the removal of the tower, the airport was declared open for non-scheduled flights, which will enable landing of eight-seater chartered Dornier flights used very often by high-end tourists. The opening of the airport for chartered flights comes at an appropriate time as tourists flock Shimla around Christmas and New Year.

State Tourism Department will now approach the Union Ministry for Civil Aviation to take steps to resume regular flights from the airport, which is now technically fit for commercial flights. It was on September 6, 2012 that the last Kingfisher flight took off from here. Ever since, there have been only occasional non-scheduled flights like chartered ones carrying the high end tourists or army personnel.

The Himachal High Court had directed the state government to take steps to ensure resumption of flights from Shimla. In fact, it was on the court orders that the mobile tower was removed to pave way for resumption of flights.

During the last six months the airport remained closed even for charted flights as the work on broadening of the runway from 23 mts to 30 mts was undertaken. This will help in landing of a bigger aircraft. A sum of over Rs 10 crore has been spent on creating various facilities.

“The airport is now ready for commercial flights also as all work has been completed and even the mobile tower removed,” said Parwinder Tiwari, Airport Director. He added that hopefully scheduled commercial flights would be resumed at the earliest.

The work on having re-fuelling facility at the airport is also under way as 900 mts land has been provided free of cost to the Indian Oil for a period of five years. Despite being a state capital, Shimla has not had flights for the last over three years which is a big impediment to tourism promotion.

Move is also afoot to get the Jubbarhatti airport certified in the 2C category instead of the present 2B in view of the fact that the runway width had been increased. A team from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) had inspected the Jubbarhatti airport in October. They have submitted their report to the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation so that flights could be resumed at the earliest.