Guwahati-Mandalay flight uncertain, Buddha Air conducts route survey

Guwahati-Mandalay flight uncertain, Buddha Air conducts route survey

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The leading airlines have not come forward so far to operate flights from Guwahati to Mandalay (Myanmar) even as Nepal’s premier airline ‘Buddha Air’ recently conducted a route survey for the possible introduction of the international flight between Guwahati and Kathmandu.

“The Union Aviation ministry has already conducted a bidding process for the new international flights Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN)-IV Scheme. But the leading airlines have not participated in the bidding forcing the Aviation ministry to give a fresh look into the entire issue,” a source told The Sentinel on Sunday.

Sources said the suspension of flights from Guwahati to Dhaka and Bangkok in the midway of their operation has proved to be a setback from business and psychological points of view for the airlines to operate flights in the new routes.

After a suspension of the Guwahati-Dhaka flight service by SpiceJet in September 2019, Nok Air — the Thailand-based low-cost airline — suspended its operations from Guwahati to Bangkok from January 20 this year. Even though both the airlines suspended its services citing “operational reasons”, sources said that very low passengers’ load had forced the companies to give a re-think on the viability of their operations on this route. “The only silver lining is the route survey conducted by the Buddha Air for Guwahati-Kathmandu flight service. The airline is currently operating weekly flights between Kathmandu and Varanasi and Kathmandu to Kolkata.

An official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said that the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport at Borjhar is ready with necessary infrastructures and facilities to operate international flights to different destinations.

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