After the success of domestic and international operations from Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA), Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia Airline has decided to start another domestic flight from Bhubaneswar. The new daily flight to Ranchi will start operations from October 7.With this, AirAsia offers connectivity from the city airport to Kolkata, Bangalore, Ranchi and Kuala Lumpur. AirAsia is a major operator which uses both (domestic and international) terminals of the BPIA.
According to airline schedule, Bhubaneswar-Ranchi flight (I51625) will take off from Bhubaneswar at 12:45 pm and reach Ranchi at 2 pm. Similarly, the Ranchi-Bhubaneswar flight (I51624) will take off from Ranchi at 10:30 am and reach here by 11:50 am. Apart from Bhubaneswar, the airline has also decided to offer daily direct flights to Ranchi from Bangalore and Hyderabad.At present, the Bhubaneswar-Ranchi ticket price is around Rs 2,300 (the fare is subject to change).
The Malaysian carrier has two flights to Bangalore and two flights to Kolkata. Significantly, the airline which started the international operations to Kuala Lumpur in April this year gets good response from the state.
In fact, the airline was selected for international operations by the state government through a competitive bidding. Apart from AirAsia, IndiGo, Air India, Vistara and Go Air also offer domestic connectivity from BPIA. However, AirAsia is the only airline which offers direct domestic and international connectivity from BPIA.Top officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) informed this daily that BPIA will have more flights soon.
“BPIA is a potential airport and we are already in talks with different operators for starting operations from here. We also suggested to the airlines to start operations by using small aircraft,” said a top official of the AAI.
According to officials, within two years, the passengers can expect more facilities at BPIA. The AAI has floated a proposal for a three-star hotel near the airport. The authorities have already indentified approximately 54 acres at BPIA for commercial purposes and decided to allot one acre to the three-star project.
