The inaugural flight of AirAsia (India) landed at Bagdogra airport on Sunday. The flight was welcomed to the apron with water cannons as it taxied on the runway.

It is the eighth airline company that has introduced service in Bagdogra. From Sunday, it will run a daily flight between Bagdogra and Delhi. The flight from Delhi will depart at 12.05pm and land at Bagdogra at 2.10pm. On return, it will take off from Bagdogra at 2.40pm and land at Delhi at 4.55pm.

Introduction of AirAsia's flight at Bagdogra is significant because the AirAsia (India) Limited is a joint venture company of Tata Sons Limited and AirAsia Investment Limited. The company was established in 2013 and runs flights from 12 other metros of the country. Bagdogra is the 13th airport where the company introduced the service on Sunday.

AirAsia is the second airline company that has investments by the Tata Group to have started service at Bagdogra. Back on April, 2015, Vistara, another airline company that is a joint venture of Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, had introduced flights between Bagdogra and Delhi via Guwahati.

Rakesh Sahay, the airport director of Bagdogra, confirmed the introduction of the AirAsia flights from Bagdogra. He also mentioned that the number of passengers travelling through the airport had doubled in the past four years.

"In the current fiscal, the number of passengers has already crossed the one million mark. At the end of this fiscal, we expect to cross the 14 lakh mark," Sahay said.

Picture by Passang Yolmo