Six months on, Andal set to return to air map

Kolkata: More than six months after Air India abruptly shut its flight operations from India’s first greenfield airport in the heart of the state’s coal and steel belt at Andal near Durgapur, Zoom Air, a private airliner, has announced to operate a daily flight from Friday.

The 50-seater aircraft will travel from Kolkata to Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport, popularly known as Andal airport, for its journey to Delhi. On the return route, it will travel from Delhi to Kolkata to reach Andal.

Officials of Zoom Air said that Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited (BAPL), the airport’s private sector operator, is hopeful of getting enough passengers to avail of the service in order to make their venture in this sector viable.

If everything augurs well, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju will inaugurate the flight from Kolkata or from Andal on February 3.

Air India had stopped its flight operation from the airport in July last year as barely seven or eight passengers would avail of the service from Kolkata to Andal. More than half the seats in the 122-seat Airbus A319 would usually remain empty. The Andal airport had started commercial operations from May 2015.

“The Andal airport’s target area comprises towns of Burdwan, Bankura, Bishnupur, Purulia, Suri, Bolpur and Rampurhat in southern West Bengal, with an additional catchment area extending to Dhanbad and Bokaro in neighbouring Jharkhand, while Kolkata addresses a more metropolitan traffic. So availability of passengers will not be a problem,” a BAPL official said.