Pune airport gets new flights to several domestic destinations

PUNE: The Pune airport is recording an increase in domestic flight movements after a major dip, mainly due to Jet Airways suspending its operations.
On Tuesday, through the airport’s Twitter handle Pune airport director Ajay Kumar said that starting May 30, the city will get its first direct connection with Bhopal. The national carrier Air India will begin flight services between the two cities. The announcement comes less than a month after the authorities had announced five new flights including two direct connections to Bengaluru, Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

In addition, GoAir recently announced another flight connecting Pune and Delhi.
“After Jet suspended its flight operations indefinitely, the total flight movement at the Pune airport reduced to 150. However, things seem to be improving slowly but steadily with new flights being announced. We hope that the deficit will be made up over the coming months,” an airport official said.
The new Air India flight (AI-481) will leave from Bhopal at 1045am and reach Pune at 12.05pm. On its return, the flight (AI-482) will leave Pune at 12.05pm and reach Bhopal at 2pm.
“Altogether, four direct flights have been introduced since the last month apart from three connecting flights. Jet Airways had close to 18 flights from Pune and its financial woes affected the airport. The revenue has come down. However, the airport seems to be on a recovery path again and we are sure that more flights will start. However, the international connections remain a concern,” another official pointed out.
A glance at the domestic traffic at the Pune airport in the first three months of the year reveals that while the numbers dropped drastically in February as compared with January, in March, the number went up slightly. The same can be said when it comes to the domestic aircraft movements at the Pune airport during the three months.
Aviation experts have said that the airport authorities must act urgently towards plugging the deficit. “The airport authorities need to pump in capacity and stabilize the huge demand-supply mismatch created due stoppage of flight operations by Jet Airways and Lufthansa. While there is a scramble to grab the lucrative and high yield vacant routes of Jet Airways by the airlines, the airport authorities must act judiciously and ensure allotment only after making sure that these airlines have the required equipment and manpower to handle such additional flights. Trying to cater to the increased load with their existing resources will result in frequent delays and flight disruptions,” said aviation analyst Dhairyashil Vandekar.