Air India introduces Delhi-Portblair flight with stopover in Bhubaneswar;
Air India/Indian, Bhubaneswar, Bringing International Connectivity, Uncategorized October 3rd. 2011, 9:27pmUpdate on 10th October 2011: The Delhi – Bhubaneswar – Port Blair Air India (6 days a week) flight will allow boarding and deplaning of passengers at Bhubaneswar. This will not only provide Bhubaneswar – Port Blair connectivity; it will also incraese connectivity between Bhubaneswar and Delhi. Air India also plans to have another daily Bhubaneswar – Delhi flight taking the total number of daily AI flights between these cities to (almost) three and taking the total number of daily Bhubaneswar – Delhi flights to almost eight – 7 dailies and one 6 days a week. Following is a screen copy from http://www.cleartrip.com/ on the dates Nov 2 2011 and Nov 3 2011.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Deccan Herald.
Keeping in mind the high tourist potential, Air India subsidiary Alliance Air has introduced a direct flight to Port Blair from here via Bhubaneswar and would operate a new 70-seater jet plane.
Giving holiday makers another reason to cheer, Air India’s direct flight AI 9603/9604 would be operated with Bombardier’s CRJ-700 on all days of the week, except Saturday, a spokesperson said.
The above news item is confirmed from the Air India web site. See the screen capture below.
As the following map shows Bhubaneswar is very close to the straight line between Delhi and Port Blair. The stop-over in Bhubaneswar allows Air India to use a smaller aircraft that can be refueled in Bhubaneswar. I hope Air India will allow people to get on and off at Bhubaneswar.
As the map above shows Bhubaneswar is also very close to the straight line connecting Delhi to Jakarta, Delhi to Singapore and Delhi to Kwalalumpur. I hope some of the airlines take note of that and introduce flights between those places with a stopover in Bhubaneswar.
Update: Mumbai to Hongkong and Mumbai to Taipei also passes very close to Bhubaneswar. Updated the map above to illustrate that.
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October 4th, 2011 at 1:23 am
It’s great to see air traffic at BBI growing like this. Thanks to such stopover flights, BBI is now connected to unlikely destinations such as Bagdogra, Guwahati and Srinagar with hopping flights through CCU and DEL. The DEL-BBI route is a very demanded route and the new AI flight should be able to accommodate some extra passengers. I shall not be surprised if AI upgrades the aircraft on this route from the current CRJ 700 70 seater to a larger Airbus 319 or 320. Currently AI flies an Airbus 321––it’s largest domestic aircraft––on the DEL-BBI route.
With the inclusion of this route, BBI now sees 20 flights a day. I wish Jet Airways would restart its BLR-BBI-RPR route, and return to direct flights to and from HYD. With the spanking new terminal of Biju Patnaik airport coming up in a few months from now, this is an ideal time for a boost to air traffic from Bhubaneswar. Also, as suggested here, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, etc could easily be connected to BBI if some flights from DEL could make a stopover here. That should be a viable beginning to international air travel from Bhubaneswar.
Another boon for air travel from BBI could come from SpiceJet, whose new regional service, SpiceJet Regional, meant for Tier II and Tier III cities, using 78 seater Bombardier Q400 aircrafts is ideally suited for connecting BBI with cities like Vizag, Raipur, Ranchi, Nagpur, Patna, Ahmedabad, etc. I had written to SpiceJet recommending the inclusion of BBI in their Regional network and got an optimistic response from them. I am enclosing my letter and their reply below. It may be noted that SpiceJet has had its expectations exceeded with the beginning of the Regional service and is now actually contemplating purchasing another 15 Bombardier Q400 aircrafts to add to its current order of 15. The chances for BBI look good!
Following is my correspondence with SpiceJet:
“Dear Sir/Madam,
Congratulations on the successful introduction of your new Bombardier Q400 fleet. I believe it’s a great boon for air travelers in Tier II & III cities. I am a frequent flier and belong to BHubaneswar–a city SpiceJet unfortunately doesn’t connect. The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri-Khurda conglomerate is one of the nation’s biggest urban areas and is growing at a very fast rate with Orissa’s strong economic growth. The city of Bhubaneswar is fast growing into a metropolis with an immigrant cosmopolitan population with high dispensable incomes that travels a lot. There is much to exploit from the potential of the region through increased air connectivity. Currently, BBI receives about 18 commercial flights daily from DEL, BLR, HYD, CCU, BOM, MAA & RPR. I strongly suggest that you connect BBI with Q400 services to VTZ, RPR, IXR, NAG, AMD, PAT. There is a tremendous amount of IInd and IIIrd AC railway travel from BBI to all of these above mentioned places and you must capitalise on those passengers. Cities like VTZ were earlier connected well by air from BBI but carriers like Air India couldn’t continue them because of various reasons. BBI-MAA is a poorly served route with just one daily flight. BBI-BLR, a high demand route, is currently served by just three flights a day. BBI-RPR is also underserved.
Following are some possible sectors that you could take up/extend to include BBI:
1. BBI-VTZ-MAA
2. BBI-VTZ-HYD
3. BBI-VTZ-BLR
4. BBI-RPR-DEL
5. BBI-NAG-DEL
6. BBI-NAG-BOM
7. BBI-IXR-PAT
8. BBI-IXR-DEL
9. BBI-AMD-DEL
10. BBI-CCU-IXR
11. BBI-CCU-RPR
I hope you will seriously consider these routes and capitalise on the heavy regional traffic. With your competitive pricing and the growing demand in Tier II cities, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to generate enough traffic on these routes. I strongly urge you to take up these sectors as your fleet increases in the future. For the immediate future, I strongly urge you to extend your services from VTZ to BBI and take advantage of the traffic on the BBI-VTZ-MAA-HYD-BLR sector.
Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
Aditya C Panda
October 4th, 2011 at 1:25 am
Sorry! I forgot to add SpiceJet’s reply to my letter! Here it is:
“Reference-CR/125773/2011
Dear Sir,
Thank you for writing to us.
We would like to thank you for suggesting the travel Secor-Bhubneshwar. Your suggestion has been forwarded for further consideration to SpiceJet’s Sales and Marketing department. We are looking at expanding our network across domestic and international routes and aim at making our services accessible to all. SpiceJet shall definitely look into the potential the option holds.
Introduction of new routes shall be informed to patrons via suitable means of communication.
This is to inform you that SpiceJet is set to introduce a new fleet of Q-400 aircrafts , connecting from Hyderabad to the 2 TIER and 3 TIER cities .We will operate the maiden flight on 21 September 2011 connecting Hyderabad with Tirupati. During the month we would connect to Vijayawada, Rajahmundry and subsequently to Aurangabad, Indore and Bhopal effective 01 October 2011.
Bookings are open on the website, Guest Sales and Reservations Centre and the Airport Sales counter. Please book now to avail the best fares .
In case you need further clarification/assistance, please feel free to get in touch with us.
Thanks & Regards,
Nupur Chandok,
Customer Relations,
Spicejet Limited.
Toll Free : 1800-180-3333
Mobile : 0987-180-3333.
Fax No. : 0124-3913853.
Website : http://www.spicejet.com”
Cheers,
Aditya
October 4th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
• I had enquired. It seems there will be a stop at Bhubaneswar only for refuelling. No passanger to be entertained. If it is true, all Odias please unite and shout.
• Moreover, If Bhubaneswar airport is given some International landing facility, cheap airlines like Air asia can operate to Bangkok, Kualalumpur and Bali (whcich has 93% Hindus and historical connection with Odisha), there by increasing our tourism potential.
• It may also be noted, subsidized Govt. owned Airline like Air India Express run from affluent Kerala, TN, Punjab and such other locations. But for flights from Odisha they ask for financial returns – ridiculous
October 4th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
Got to know that Kingfisher will discontinue all its low cost flights.BBSR may face the axe.
October 5th, 2011 at 1:46 am
If Kingfisher drops those flights, they will be picked up by the other airlines.
October 5th, 2011 at 2:54 am
Nice work on the straight line route from Delhi to locations in Malaysia and Singapore. However, I think the government is not shouting out loud enough to upgrade the status of the BBSR airport to an international one. More pressure needs to be added on the AAI.
October 5th, 2011 at 3:03 am
Yes, Kingfisher is shutting down its Red service. All KF flights to BBI––6 a day, if I am not mistaken––are KF Red. But this is a nationwide happening and all KF Red (ex-Air Deccan) aircraft will be grounded by November. The reason according to KF is that its ‘Kingfisher Class’ economy service is doing better than Red. So will KF replace the Red network with KF Class aircraft? I don’t know. Also, other airlines will take time to cash on the gaps left by KF as most of their fleets are already well occupied on other routes. Carriers like Indigo and AI, whose fleets are perhaps the fastest growing in India, would obviously be the first to try and cash in. SpiceJet and GoAir have limited fleets with (relatively) small number of large aircraft in the Airbus 320/Boeing 737 range. So an immediate fill up of the gaps left by the retreat of KF Red looks unlikely to me. I may be wrong.
Coming to international flights, BBI is equipped to handle international traffic. The runway too doesn’t need immediate expansion as, if one notes, most budget international airlines flying to destinations like Southeast Asia, the Middle East, etc use the Airbus 320/Boeing 737 aircraft. BBI currently serves these aircraft for domestic traffic. I am unsure if BBI runway is long enough to handle Airbus 330 sized wide-bodied aircraft. It certainly can’t handle Boeing 747s in its current form. So there is no reason as to why Air India Express and its likes can’t serve BBI.
Re. the Air India flight from Delhi to Port Blair, I am reasonable sure passengers will be allowed to embark and deplane in Bhubaneswar. It will be uneconomical for the airline to land an aircraft, station it here for half an hour and refuel it while not encashing on a heavily crowded route such as DEL-BBI. But agree, if it doesn’t, we must unite and shout!
October 6th, 2011 at 2:48 am
Looks like Kingfisher will not halt its flights to Bhubaneswar. Here is an excerpt from KF’s justification its move to wind up Kingfisher Red (http://networkedblogs.com/o1HFQ):
*”There will be no reduction in Kingfisher’s fleet size or its network. Our guests will continue to enjoy the benefits of Kingfisher’s network that provides connectivity to 60 domestic and 8 international destinations.”*
KF will only be converting all its aircraft to double cabin economy-business class combinations. There won’t be any single cabin, full economy class aircraft. And clearly its network shall not be affected. So in effect, Bhubaneswar will only be served by more full service aircrafts. Which is a good thing.
October 9th, 2011 at 4:07 am
Air India has barely managed to get a dozen passengers a day from Delhi to Port Blair via Bhubaneswar. This has finally knocked the sense into them to allow passengers to board and alight at Bhubaneswar. The morning flight option will surely demand some traffic. From today onwards, the aircraft will not only refuel in Bhubaneswar but will also carry passengers. From 30th October, Air India will be launching its third, and Bhubaneswar’s seventh daily direct flight to and from Delhi. This is following the great response to AI’s Bhubaneswar-Calcutta flight which is carrying passengers in excess of 100 everyday. Now AI is said to be seriously considering launching services to Hyderabad and Bangalore from Bhubaneswar. Awesome!
October 9th, 2011 at 7:50 am
Technical stop-over will be converted to commercial stop in a couple of days.
Air India is probably counting on the BBI-DEL sector traffic to help fill the plane in the DEL-IXZ sector. Lucky for us that we get another flight to Delhi.
Hopefully Air India will start an early morning flight from BBI-CCU to take up the slack created by Kingfisher withdrawing its Red service.
As for international status, I seriously doubt that this is needed for Bhubaneswar at present. Even right now if we consider the number of people travelling from Bhubaneswar, connecting to international flights elsewhere, I dont think the number will be high enough to warrant direct international flights from Bhubaneswar. It wont even make commercial sense for the airlines to provide stop-overs in BBI to other countries.
As of now Bhubaneswar is very well connected to India’s most important international air-gateway ie IGI Airport, with 7 daily non-stop connections. Thus there is no immediate need to push for international status.
Rather the govt should focus on improving facilities at the present airport, which is already underway. BBI Airport should be ready facility and infrastructure wise to be declared as an international airport without requiring any major changes when it makes commercial sense and airlines show enthusiasm in connecting BBI to international destinations.
It should also pursue development of other air-strips in Orissa, like Berhampur, Jharsuguda, Jeypore etc and encourage some entrepreneurs to start charter and even scheduled flights within Orissa and to neighboring states.
October 16th, 2011 at 10:33 am
Just to add some more info.
I was just checking Cleartrip for some info and found Jet Airways is starting a 3rd service to Kolkata from 16th Nov at 8.20 in the morning, which if one continues to include the Kingfisher service will make for 6 flights to Kolkata everyday.
Even the recently introduced Air India flight is doing very well indeed. I hope Air India introduces an early morning service to Kolkata as well.
October 16th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Thanks. Seems like there will be some more flights from next year. (connecting Hyderabad and Mumbai) http://www.jetairways.com/EN/IN/PlanYourTravel/Schedules.aspx