PUNE: Fliers from Jabalpur and Patna will soon have a direct flight from Pune, as Jet Airways and Indigo airlines have shown interest in starting flights between these cities. There are hundreds of students and professionals from Jabalpur and Patna residing in Pune.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has given the nod to start a direct flight from Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) Airport, Patna, to Pune at night. JetLite, a low-cost subsidiary of Jet Airways, will operate a direct flight from Pune-Patna-Pune from March 25.
Similarly, a meeting between the officials of Indigo airlines and Jabalpur airport director was held recently. The airlines have shown interest in starting a direct flight between Pune and Jabalpur from June.
“It is quite inconvenient to find a comfortable timing of flight to Jabalpur, as most of the flights are via Mumbai, Nagpur or other cities, which takes a day or half a day. A direct flight will save time and be more convenient,” said Sangeeta Mandal, a teacher in Pune, who belongs to Jabalpur.
Payal Anand, an entrepreneur in Pune and a frequent flier from Pune to Patna, said, “There are no direct flights from Pune to Patna. We have to wait at either Delhi or Kolkata for more than two hours. We need direct flights, which will help thousands of people livin here to go home on time. People are dependent on trains.”
MORE PASSENGER TRAFFIC
- Pune airport has seen a 25.8 per cent increase in domestic passenger traffic in 2017 from the previous year, as against the 8.9 per cent growth registered by the Mumbai facility during the same period, an economic survey has found.
- The airport here recently clinched the third place in the quality of passenger services in the final report of the Airports Council International (ACI) survey for 2017. The ranking was in the bracket of the best airport by size and sub-category of 5-15 million passengers per year.
