Centre, State urged to resume flight service between Lakhimpur and Guwahati

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: The Airport Advisory Committee of Lilabari Airport has urged the governments at the Centre and in the State to resume the direct flight services between Lakhimpur district and Guwahati. Further, the committee has appealed to the Civil Aviation Minister, Government of Assam and Lakhimpur MP Pradan Baruah to initiate necessary steps in this regard.

In this connection, the Airport Advisory Committee took a resolution in a meeting held on Saturday at the VIP lounge of the Lilabari Airport and decided to submit the resolution to the Civil Aviation Minister. The meeting was chaired by Airport Advisory Committee chairman-cum-Lakhimpur MP Pradan Baruah and it was held under the management of Airport Director Mahat Chandra Sonowal. The meeting was attended by Airport Advisory Committee members— Lakhimpur MLA Manab Deka, Deputy Commissioner Sumit Sattawan, Superintendent of Police Bedanta Madhav Rajkhowa, the CASO of Central Industrial Security Force, Lilabari Airport, journalists Ranjit Kakati and Bubul Hazarika, social worker Pawan Kumar Sarda, SDE of BSNL, North Lakhimpur, Station Manager, Air India, Lilabari Airport, representatives from North Lakhimpur Municipal Board, Chambers of Commerce and Alliance Airlines. In the meeting, detailed discussion was held over the development activities at Lilabari Airport, enhancing passenger flights and scope of cargo movement along with safety, security measures of the same.

During the discussion, all the members of Airport Advisory Board unanimously laid stress on the resumption of the direct flight services between Lilabari Airport and Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Borjhar of Guwahati, in view of increased passengers' demand. In this connection, the meeting called upon Pradan Baruah, the Lakhimpur MP-cum-chairman of the Airport Advisory Committee, to shoulder the responsibility required with regard to making correspondence with the authorities concerned for the benefits of the people of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts as well as tourists and other passengers of the State.

There have been no flight services between Guwahati and Lakhimpur since May 11, the day when the regional commuter airline Flybig suspended direct flight on Lilabari-Borjhar route. Flybig launched direct connectivity between Guwahati and Lakhimpur from November 3 of the last year. The main objective of the initiative was to connecting the entire northeast region in order to boost and encourage tourism at affordable rates. The suspension of the services has affected the region. Earlier direct flights between Guwahati and Lilabari had remained suspended from mid-2019 after Air India, then SpiceJet had stopped their service under UDAAN.

However, another airline, Alliance Airlines has at present been continuing its flight services between Kolkata and Lilabari daily, Guwahati-Shillong-Lilabari on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, Lilabari-Shillong on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, Lilabari-Shillong-Dimapur on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, Tezpur-Lilabari on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, Lilabari-Tezpur-Guwahati on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

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