After a two-year break due to the Covid-19 outbreak, foreignflights from Guwahati’s Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (LGBIA) resumed services on Saturday.
The first flight out on Saturday was a Druk Air flight from Guwahati to Singapore at 9.10 a.m. According to LGBIA officials, the same airline will operate a Sunday flight from Guwahati to Paro, Bhutan.
Bhutan’s national airline, Druk Air, is now the only foreign carrier operating flights to Guwahati, the gateway to northeast India.
“Prior to the pandemic, Druk Air used to operate flights from Paro to Singapore and back with a stopover in Guwahati on both ways. But the flights were stopped in 2020 due to Covid restrictions,” claimed an LGBIA official. However, with Bhutan reopening its borders to international tourists, Druk Air has resumed flights, allowing travellers from Guwahati and other northeastern cities to easily travel to Singapore and Paro.
In 2019, a flight from Guwahati to Dhaka, Bangladesh, was launched as part of the Centre’s UDAAN scheme. However, due to a lack of traffic, the service was suspended within a few months.
Officials indicated that efforts are underway to begin flights from Guwahati to Yangon (Myanmar), Kathmandu (Nepal), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Hanoi (Vietnam), and Bangkok (Thailand) within the next few months.