Daytime flights to and from the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi will remain suspended from March 28 to April 27 as the runway will remain closed for the final layer of carpeting for a month, officials from the largest airport in Jharkhand said on Wednesday.

Despite the suspension of flights from 11 am to 5 pm, none of the flights taking off from the city at present will be cancelled during the carpeting of the runway, a press communiqué from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) stated.

“The flights will be rescheduled, not cancelled. All the flights currently ferrying passengers to and from Ranchi will take off or land from 6.45 am to 11 am and then from 5 pm to 9.15 pm,” said the Airport Director Vinod Sharma.

At present, at least 19 flights connect Ranchi to New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. The airport authorities here also plan to increase connectivity with more tier-2 cities once the carpeting work is complete, sources said. Ranchi is likely to get direct flights to Patna, Chandigarh, Pune and Trivandrum in the near future, airport officials said.

Daytime flights at the Ranchi airport were suspended from November 16, 2020 to January 15, 2021 as well for carpeting. The Airport Director said that three layers of carpeting are done on the strip, and the third layer of carpeting will be done in the month of April.

While none of the existing flights will be cancelled, the rescheduling of flights may also cause inconvenience to passengers as flights might take off and land at odd times, sources said.

During the repairing of airstrip in January, many passengers complained that they had to layover in New Delhi airport for long hours while traveling to other destinations from Ranchi.

The passenger footfall at the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi has tripled since June, the AAI stated in December. However, the passenger footfall here was still less than half of what it used to be in pre-Covid times, local airport officials said.

The AAI stated that the passenger traffic at the Ranchi airport had dropped down to 57,749 in the month of June, when travel restrictions were relaxed after strict lockdown since March. The passenger traffic shot up to 1,41,268 in November this year when more flights were allowed to ply, the AAI stated, lauding the airport staff here for their dedication.

The Birsa Munda Airport, which bagged the top position in Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) last year, at present has a 75 meter basic strip, which is the minimum length required for any airport.