The Airport Authority of India (AAI) on September 15 decided to launch the new regional airline ‘FlyBig’. The new airline FlyBig will commence operations in North-East India from mid-November. Initially, it will fly on three routes.
The North-East region is all set to receive the new airline service under UDAN 4.0. The Centre’s regional connectivity scheme is planning to concentrate its services on the North-East. It will be connecting Pasighat, Tezu-Imphal, and Lengpui with Guwahati city.
According to AAI officiating Regional Executive Director, J.T. Radhakrishna, FlyBig is expected to become operational after mid-November. However, some new routes may also become operational by the end of this year or early next year.
The routes likely to operate initially are Guwahati-Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Guwahati-Tezu (Arunachal Pradesh)-Imphal. It will also operate from Tezpur-Lengpui (Mizoram). This information was given in a statement by the AAI.
The Guwahati-Rupsi-Kolkata route is in planning. However, it will only be operational after the opening of Rupsi Airport in Assam for flight operations.
According to AAI, all the sectors will be operational with the ATR-72 type aircraft. The ATR-72 aircraft has a seating capacity of 42 to 80. It is best suitable for regional connectivity and smaller airports.
Radhakrishna stated that smaller aircraft are the future of the UDAN programme. As far as the North-East region is concerned, more routes are expected to be opened for the regional connectivity.
Radhakrishna takes the occasion to welcome the new airline FlyBig in the North-East region. He also expects daily services soon. Out of the 78 routes identified by the Ministry of Civil Aviation under the UDAN 4.0 programme, North-East region got 40.