Direct flight from city to Bangkok from Oct 6

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 16

Come October and the city will be directly connected to Bangkok. Air India’s new A-320 Neo aircraft will fly four flights a week. It will be the third international flight from the Chandigarh airport.

As the petition filed in public interest some two years ago for making the airport fully functional came up for resumed hearing before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, public sector airlines — Air India — formally announced the schedule of the much-awaited flight.

The Bench of Justice SS Saron and Justice Avneesh Jhingan was told that the flight from October 6 would land at the Chandigarh airport at 9.30 am and take off for Bangkok at 1.30 pm.

The assertion came almost 11 months after the Chandigarh-Bangkok flight by Air India was first announced. The flight was to start in April, but was deferred till May. So far, Indigo and Air India’s subsidiary, Air India Express, have been running the Chandigarh-Dubai and Chandigarh-Sharjah flights since September 2016.

During the hearing of the case, counsel for the Union of India and Assistant Solicitor-General, Chetan Mittal, told the court that a meeting of the Secretary (Ministry of Defence), Secretary (Aviation) and others would be held on August 22 to sort out issues related to the acquisition of land for the extension of the airport runway and taxiway. The case will now come up for further hearing on August 28.

The developments took place during the hearing of a petition filed by the Mohali Industries Association against the non-operation of the Chandigarh international airport. The Bench, on a previous date of hearing, had asked the airline to plan its flight schedule in a manner that would prevent limited watch hours at the airport from posing a problem.