Mysore: At last, the long-pending demands of Mysureans to connect to Bengaluru by air is being fulfilled. The Central Government under the third phase of its Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) or UDAN Scheme (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) has introduced flights from Mysuru to Bengaluru starting June 7, 2019.

Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha, in a press release, said that Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, will operate the 70-seater ATR-72 on the route five days a week except on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The new flights between the cultural capital Mysuru and the State capital Bengaluru will help in the economic development and increase the tourist potential of Mysuru, said the MP. He also gave credit to and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Civil Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha for including Mysuru in the UDAN-3 scheme.

Since Sept. 20, 2017, TruJet has been operating daily flights to Chennai from Mysuru and has reported 95 percent occupancy rate. It is to be seen if Mysuru-Bengaluru flights will have the same success.

It may be recalled that flights between Mysuru-Bengaluru were introduced in 2016-17 when the same Alliance Air had flights departing Bengaluru for Mysuru at 6 am and returning to Bengaluru at 8 am. Unfortunately, it did not find much success and was stopped. Later they operated flights only during Dasara festival.

Manish Salian, Director, Bharath International Travels, one of the top travel agencies in Mysuru, speaking to SOM this morning said that, earlier the flight timings were odd so people were not inclined to take early morning flights, but the new timings are very convenient for people who are taking connecting flights, both domestic and   international, from the Bengaluru Airport.

He also informed that unlike last time when the Air India staff in Bengaluru themselves did not know that their airline was operating from Mysuru, this time the bookings are already available online on the Air India website.

Flight schedules and rates: The fare for the one-hour Bengaluru-Mysuru flight is Rs.1,580. But it is Rs. 1,365 if booked on the Air India website. The price to fly from Mysuru-Bengaluru is Rs. 1,504 and again it is Rs. 1,365 if booked from the Air India website.

The flights from Bengaluru, AI 9539 will depart from the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) at 10.30 am and arrive at the Mysore Airport in Mandakalli at 11.25 am. The flight from Mysuru, flight AI 9540 will depart at 12 noon and arrive at KIA, Bengaluru at 1 pm.

Flights to other cities soon

MP Pratap Simha in his press release also mentioned that TruJet flight that began its daily operations on Sept. 20, 2017 from Mysuru to Chennai has turned profitable and that is a good sign. He then added saying that under UDAN-3 scheme Mysuru has also bagged four routes which are to Goa, Kochi, Belagavi and Hyderabad.

Ghodawat Airlines, Alliance Air, InterGlobe Airlines, SpiceJet and Turbo Megha Air are among the selected airlines that are likely to operate flights to these destinations from Mysuru.