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Regular-article-logo Saturday, 21 June 2025

CITY OFF KLM FLIGHT PATH 

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BY OUR AIRPORT REPORTER Published 07.07.02, 12:00 AM
Calcutta, July 7 :    Calcutta, July 7:  With the departure of its last flight on July 10, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will be moving out of Calcutta for the second time. The airline, like other foreign airlines, shifted out of Calcutta in the wake of political violence in the early 70s. It returned in 1992. 'We will be operating our last flight from Calcutta on July 10,' said a KLM official. KLM's withdrawal will leave only one direct flight to Europe by British Airways (BA). BA operates three weekly flights between London and Calcutta. Director of the city airport Roshan Lal said KLM had conveyed to him its decision to move out of the city. 'They informed me that they will wind up flight operations from Calcutta.' The airline will, however, still have an office in the city for ticket sales, a KLM official said. The departure of KLM leaves seven airlines operating international flights from the city. A spokesman of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said KLM operated a weekly flight on the Amsterdam-Delhi-Calcutta route. Travel agency sources said the flight was very popular, despite the odd time of its arrival and departure. On its reasons for moving out, a KLM spokesman said: 'We are getting a good number of passengers in Delhi. So there is no point in coming all the way to Calcutta and paying heavy landing charges.' But aviation sources said the reason was a Central order not allowing KLM to operate on the Amsterdam-Calcutta-Jakarta route, at the instance of Air-India.    
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