Ranchi airport: Endless wait

Ranchi, Dec. 18: The crisis in the capital sky is far from over.

With no airline coming forward with proposals to introduce new flights, Ranchi continues to be poorly connected with important cities across the country. As a result, frequent fliers, especially businessmen, are paying the price.

The number of flights operating from the state capital reduced drastically in the past couple of months. A total of four airlines were running operations from Ranchi to various destinations. But now, only two — Air India and Kingfisher — are on the radar with MDLR and Jetlite deciding to pack up.

While Air India has flights in the Ranchi-Delhi-Mumbai sector, Kingfisher offers connectivity between Ranchi and Calcutta and Ranchi and Delhi. Air India’s flight from Ranchi to Patna was scrapped six months ago. Only Kingfisher flies ATR aircraft to Patna.

Earlier, MDLR had announced flights on new sectors — Ranchi-Hyderabad and Ranchi-Bangalore among others. But two months ago, the airline withdrew its operations in the Ranchi-Patna-Delhi-Chandigarh sectors.

Jetlite, which had been operating flights from Ranchi to Mumbai, had bid adieu in the beginning of the year.

“We held talks with various airlines and asked them why they were withdrawing flights from Ranchi. They cited poor business as the reason. They said industrial development of the region did not take place according to their expectations,” said Anchal Kinger, the president of Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

“Air India did not pull back its flight on Ranchi-Patna route due to economic reasons. Airbus 321 that replaced Airbus 320 cannot land at Patna airport. That is why we had to withdraw the flight,” said Pramod Bhuiyan, area manager of Air India in Ranchi. He ruled out the possibility of introducing new flights in the near future.

The slump in the state’s aviation sector has come at a time when expansion of Birsa Munda Airport is underway. “No airline has come to us expressing interest to introduce new flights. It is unfortunate since expansion is on the anvil,” said Raju Raghavendra Kumar, air traffic controller, Birsa Munda Airport.