Mysuru likely to get more flights under UDAN

Mysuru city, a victim to its proximity to the state capital, Bengaluru, at least when it comes to flight services, is all set to have six new services under the third phase of the Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme, shortly.

In a press release, MP Prathap Simha has stated that the city would get the flight services to major cities within the state and also in the neighbouring states, under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS), popularly known as UDAN.

“The Civil Aviation Ministry has approved the flight services to Belgavi, Goa, Cochin International Airport, and Bengaluru and two flights to Hyderabad,” the press note states.

Mysuru Airport Director C Manjunath said, “At present, only one flight service is operating from Mysuru. “Trujet flight that arrives at Mysuru at 8 pm, departs at 8.20 pm. It is bound for Chennai. But, from Chennai, it leaves for Hyderabad. It is receiving good response from the passengers,” he said.

Airport manager, Trujet, T A Gurunath said that the introduction of new flight services in Mysuru would be a good development for the aviation sector.

“Now, the airport looks abandoned, except for some time, when the flight arrives at 8 pm and departs at 8.20 pm. There should be flight services round the clock to make use of the facility and the infrastructure,” he said.

Recently, MP Pratap Simha had said that the extension work on the Mysuru Airport runway will commence this month. So Mysureans, including industrialists and those in the hospitality sector can look forward to some positive development.

“The process to acquire 300 acres of land is on. The works will commence soon after the acquisition. The runway will be extended to 2.7 km from the existing 1.7 km. The Union government has sanctioned Rs 700 crore for this,” he had said.

Trujet flights, which began under UDAN scheme on September 20, 2017, had stopped services on November 16, 2017, due to operational problems. It resumed on November 21, 2017.

Earlier, the first service was introduced in March 2010. Kingfisher Airways introduced the service between Mysuru and Bengaluru. However, it suspended it in October 2011, due to poor response. SpiceJet introduced flights in January 2013 and stopped the operations in October 2014. Alliance Air operated services for a few days between Bengaluru-Mysuru in 2015.