The Airport Authority of India on Thursday once again had to face the wrath of Punjab and Haryana High Court over the delay in launching international flights from Chandigarh Airport, when Indigo Airlines told the Court that it was yet to be provided with a slot for launching flights at the airport.
As the case came up for resumed hearing, the Bench of Justice SS Saron and Justice lisa Gill was told that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) was yet to provide a slot to Indigo Airlines for starting flights.
Reprimanding the AAI over the delay, the Bench observed nearly a year was about to pass since Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Airport but the authorities have not been able to make even a single flight take off from here.
The Bench asserted the issue was a matter of emotions for the people here. In fact, they had high expectations, and people were even writing letters for making the international airport fully functional.
In an effort to save its face, AAI in its response to the assertion told the Court, that the slot had already been provided to the company. The Bench was further told the other facilities required by the Airlines would be provided within the next 48 hours.
During the hearing, the Bench also called for opinion of technical experts on the issue of installing CAT-III system for landing during winters and resurfacing of the runway for the landing of bigger airplanes.
The Bench was told that the process of resurfacing would be completed by the first quarter of 2018.
The Bench, on a previous date of hearing, was informed by the Airport Authority of India that Indigo would commence international flights from Chandigarh from May 17, positively.
The airlines company in a communiqué had said, “IndiGo currently has an unutilised allocation of seven fights/1260 seats per week in each direction on the Chandigarh-Dubai route and seven fights/ 1260 seats per week in each direction on the Mumbai-Dubai route. It will commence operations on the Chandigarh-Dubai and Mumbai routes in the forthcoming summer 2016 schedule, fully utilising the above allocated capacity entitlements within the summer 2016 schedule itself”.
Before parting with the matter, the Bench asked Air India to come out with its proposed time-table of international flights from Chandigarh.