Air Odisha set to launch inter-city air services by July end

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jul 12:

With the launch of international flights from the Biju Patnaik airport here, the stage is now set for inter-city flights within Odisha as early as by the end of July.

The Odisha government is all set to sign a MoU with Air Odisha for intra-state air services next week, sources in the General Administration department said.

Though the MoU to be signed with the state government requires Air Odisha to launch its flights within 90 days of its signing, the company says it is ready to start services by the end of this month.

“We have a nine-seater Grand Cessna Caravan-208 ready for the flight. As per the decision, there would be three flights to Sambalpur, Rourkela and Jeypore from Bhubaneswar in the initial phase. The air fare for to any of these three destinations will be Rs 2000. The passengers will reach Jeypore in 1.30 hours, Sambalpur in 1.05 hours and Rourkela in 1.15 hours. We are planning to extend the flight to Jharsuguda and Nuapada in the next phase”, said Tridiv Rout, director, Air Odisha.

Rout said the flight is most likely to begin at 7 AM to allow the passengers to finish off their work in a day and return to their destination in the evening.

“We would fix the flight schedule in accordance with the scheduled flights to and from Bhubaneswar so that the people of Rourkela, Sambalpur, Koraput and Kalahandi can fly to other metropolitan cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Basically, our flight would serve as a feeder to bigger aircrafts and will be a great advantage to the industrialists and officials who can reach Bhubaneswar without wasting much time on their travel,” he added.

Rout also informed that the state government has agreed to provide other logistics supports like ambulance, fire-fighting and security to Air Odisha.