Airline seeks nod to fly 6 times a week between Mumbai and Kolhapur, cites 70% seat bookings

neha.tripathi@hindustantimes.com

Flights between Mumbai and Kolhapur have received a good response, recording 70% passenger traffic already,
after its operations began on Sunday.

Air Deccan, the only operator on this route, has now sought clearance from Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) to provide thrice-a-week service to six times a week.

The airline expects the passenger traffic to increase further in the coming weeks.

An airline spokesperson said, “It is too early to gauge the cities from where fliers are booking the flights. However, there has been a good response from passengers, indicating the interest and demand for the flight.”

The flights operate on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. While the Kolhapur to Mumbai flights take off at 3.05pm, the Mumbai to Kolhapur flights take off at 1.15pm.

Senior officials said that the promotional flight on April 17, which operated from Kolhapur to Mumbai, had a full flight.

The promotional fare was capped at Rs1,299 before April 22.

“We ran a couple of flights as soft runs before officially beginning the operations. On April 17, one of the passengers had booked the entire flight to Mumbai leading to full flight,” said an airline official from Chhatrapati Rajaram Maharaj Airport, Kolhapur.

The official also clarified that though there is a good response for the new flight, it wasn’t fully occupied on its official commencement on Sunday, April 22.

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The regular one-way fare for the 90-minute flight is capped at Rs1,970.

Operations on three other routes were also started on Sunday — Mumbai- Jalgaon, Nashik- Pune and Nashik- Mumbai.