Two more routes on Air Deccan map

Ranchi, May 4: Air Deccan, the no-frills airline, is all set to introduce a flight between Calcutta and Jamshedpur, besides a flight to the national capital.

Airline sources confided, on condition of anonymity, that while the air-link between Calcutta and Jamshedpur awaits security clearance and facilities at the Jamshedpur airstrip, the link to the national capital depends on how quickly the state government finalises its offer of subsidising vacant seats.

While the Calcutta-Jamshedpur flight will have to operate in daylight hours in the absence of night-landing facilities at Jamshedpur, and would use one of the smaller aircraft, for the flight to Delhi and back from the state capital it will press an Airbus into service. This, said airline sources, would enable passengers from Delhi to fly to Ranchi in the morning and return the same evening.

The decision, the sources confirmed, followed the overwhelming response the airline has received to its solitary flight to the state so far, which links the state capital to Raipur and Calcutta. The flight in the Ranchi-Calcutta sector especially, they confirmed, has been running full.

The airline, confirmed Tata Steel sources, has initiated talks with the company for using its private airport at Jamshedpur. An Air Deccan delegation recently held discussions with state government officials, too, on the security aspect at the Jamshedpur airport.

Industry secretary Santosh Satpathy claimed that all formalities had been completed to launch the flight to New Delhi. ?We are only waiting for the union government to release a sum of Rs 5.5 crore as one-time assistance to the Bangalore-based airline,? he said. The 174-seater Airbus service was scheduled to start in March, he said, but has been delayed because the payment from the union government has not yet been made.

Colonel Thimmaiya, the security chief of the airlines, called on director general of police V.D. Ram and home secretary J.B. Tubid, to discuss arrangements to provide security to the runway, the plane, passengers and the crew. Since the Jamshedpur airport is not manned by the Central Industrial Security Force, unlike at other airports, the airline wanted to explore if the state government and Tata Steel would be able to meet its security concerns.