Team News Riveting
Ranchi, January 31
The maiden commercial flight from steel city Jamshedpur to Kolkata under the scheme launched by the Government of India on Tuesday took off from Sonari airport.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren flagged off the flight at a simple function held at the tarmac of the airport. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia attended the programme virtually from the national capital.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation General (retired) V K Singh was also present on the occasion.
After virtually flagging off regional airline IndiaOne Air’s flight from Jamshedpur to Kolkata, Scindia said it would also be the first scheduled commercial air service from Jamshedpur, which earlier was limited to non-scheduled operations. The route being inaugurated today is “an extremely important route,” he added.
Scindia said that there had been a viability cap under the UDAN scheme, making the flight economical for people traveling between Jamshedpur and Kolkata. It would cost around Rs 2,500 for a seat on the 9-seater Grand Cessna aircraft. The government’s regional air connectivity scheme, which has created a landmark, is giving birth to regional carriers in a country that in the last 20 years has seen closing down, the Civil Aviation Minister said.
The plane took off for Kolkata at 10.15 am from Sonari airport and touched down in Kolkata at 11.20 am. The 9-seater aircraft took off with full passenger capacity on the first day.
Chanakya Chowdhary of Tata Steel, one of the stakeholders in the service, told reporters at the airport that the number of flights could also be increased in the coming days considering the response of the flyers.
