Vistara withdraws its only direct flight between Pune and Kolkata

PUNE: The unavailability of desirable slots for airlines at the Pune airport has come to affect many Kolkata-bound flyers with Vistara having discontinued its only direct flight from the Lohegaon facility.
A senior Vistara official confirmed the news saying, “While we were keen to add more flights on the route, there was no availability of daytime slots. The flight from Pune used to take off daily at 3.45am and reach Kolkata by 6.20am. The flight operations that had begun in March last year, were discontinued on March 1, 2018.”

Avitendra Sharma, who works in a call centre in Pune, told TOI, “It is just disappointing. I have taken the flight many times and it used to be packed even during the early morning hours. Moreover, for people like me who have shifts at the workplace, it was an ideal flight.”

The passengers who had booked the Vistara flight in advance were given full refund.

Now that Vistara’s Pune-Kolkata flight is out of the equation, only four direct flights between Pune and Kolkata will carry on operations. These include two IndiGo flights which take off at 6.05am and 12.20am, a GoAir flight that departs at 10.30pm and a Jet Airways flight that leaves from the Pune airport at 2.50am. All the flights are full on most occasions. Apart from these, there are a few connecting flights, mainly via Delhi, to Kolkata.

“Our flights used to be over 90% full in the economy class in the night. Business class customers do not travel during late night hours and Pune does not have any daytime slots available. We are redeploying the aircraft to operate on other routes, including Chennai-Kolkata twice daily, and have added a third daily frequency for Kolkata-Delhi. We are keen to add many more flights to Pune, but we require slots during the day,” Sanjiv Kapoor, chief strategy & commercial officer, Vistara, told TOI.

With the Pune airport presently having around 182 flight movements, the hunt for the right slots has been an issue with the airlines. When contacted, an official of the AAI in Pune said slots were not in their hands.

“One can always apply for slots for operating from Pune and we are open to it. But then, the final decision is taken by the headquarters,” the official said.