IndiGo airlines is all set to start a service to New Delhi from Tiruchi via Bengaluru from October 25. The airline will operate an Airbus-320 flight with 186 seats on the Tiruchi-Bengaluru-Delhi sector. The daily service will provide connectivity to passengers from Tiruchi and those in the central region, to the national capital.
Airline sources said the flight will leave Tiruchi at 7.35 p.m. and reach Bengaluru at 8.40 p.m. It will depart Bengaluru at 9.40 p.m. and arrive at New Delhi at 12.45 a.m. the next morning. The flight from Bengaluru to Tiruchi will leave at 5.40 p.m and arrive at Tiruchi at 7 p.m. It will thereafter leave for New Delhi via Bengaluru from here at 7.35 p.m.
IndiGo is the lone airline providing connectivity to domestic destinations such as Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai from Tiruchi. The airline had launched a bi-weekly service to Mumbai in August. Private carrier Jet Airways had, in February 2018, launched a daily service in the Tiruchi-Mumbai-Delhi sector providing direct connectivity to the country’s financial and national capitals from here. However, the airline all of a sudden suspended the service in October 2018, seven months after it began. Since then, there has been no direct connectivity to New Delhi from here.
Airports Authority of India statistics reveal that Tiruchi airport had handled 33,585 domestic passengers during the period April to August this year as compared to a little over 1.22 lakh during the corresponding period of 2019, witnessing a decline in passenger movements owing to suspension of flight services due to COVID-19 pandemic.