With Air India coming forward to start international flights from Chandigarh, International flights could soon be a reality this month. Air India is expected to launch its international flight from Chandigarh by May 25.
The assertion was made before the Punjab and Haryana High Court during the resumed hearing of the case of making functional the International Airport in Chandigarh.
The Division Bench of Justice S S Saron and Justice Gurmit Ram was told that the Budget-carrier IndiGo is also expected to announce its international flights from Chandigarh by May 17. Another airlines, Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore
Airlines, has shown interest for starting international flights from Chandigarh but they have sought some relaxations.
During the hearing of the case, a letter of ‘Indigo’ was put before the bench that reads, “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”
“IndiGo confirms that 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”.
On the previous date of hearing, High Court had observed that the land acquired for the public purpose should be restored back to the villagers as international flights had failed to take off.
Questioning the land acquisition for international airport, High Court had asked, why should the land acquired for the Rs 1400 crore project be not restored to 320 villagers, if the authorities could not start international flight despite huge investment.
“When you were not interested in launching international flights, why hundreds of people were forced to give their land for the international airport building. It amounts to cheating the people of the region," the court had said.
Directing to issue fresh notice to Spice Jet, the High Court adjourned the matter for May 24.