Mysuru: Finally, commercial flights from Mysore Airport at Mandakalli will resume from Sept. 15, a week before Dasara. Mysore Airport Director Manoj Kumar Singh confirmed that Hyderabad-based TruJet’s 78-seater aircraft will be operated from Mysuru to Chennai every day. The resumption of flight operation comes nearly two years after Alliance Air suspended flight services from the city.

The operations will begin under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), known as UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagarik), launched by the Narendra Modi Government. The plane will depart from Chennai at 5.25 pm and reach Mysuru at 6.40 pm. It will depart from Mysuru at 7.05 pm and reach Chennai at 8.20 pm. The flight operations resumed after marathon meetings with TruJet authorities and Airports of India authorities and with the intervention of Union Civil Aviation Ministry.

It may be recalled here that Star of Mysore, on Aug. 31 published a report “No Air Service This Dasara” as TruJet had expressed its inability to operate flights in September and sought time till October 15. Following the publication of the report, Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha had tweeted SOM report to Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, following which a decision was taken to operate flights from Sept. 15.

Sir, @jayantsinha pls operationalise before Dasara. pic.twitter.com/wE95GCsrYk

— Pratap Simha (@mepratap) August 31, 2017

TruJet has already uploaded the flight details on its website, and the ATR 72 flight will operate daily on the route while another operator Air Odisha is also waiting to introduce flights to Mysuru. Thanking Jayant Sinha and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pratap Simha said commercial flights will give a fillip to the economic and commercial growth of the Mysuru and boost the tourism sector.

Agreements have been signed with Air Odisha and TruJet for three years and operators cannot terminate the contract. “If there is a gap in the revenue or losses, the Union Government will fund 80 percent and the States will fund 20 percent to reimburse the losses.

NAREDCO DELEGATION MEETS MINISTER

A delegation from National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO), Mysuru unit, met Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Aug. 30, requesting him to start daily flight operation from Mysuru. The delegation was led by N. Divyesh, NAREDCO convener and comprised members Sudhindra, Dhirendra Mehta, Adisheshan Gowda and Satish.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, Divyesh said that in a memorandum submitted to the Ministry, the NAREDCO delegation urged him to not restrict flight operations from Mysuru to Bengaluru.

“We told him that travellers must be able to fly to destinations including Chennai, Goa, Mangaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin and Mumbai. If direct flights are not possible, at least it must be connecting flights with a single ticket. This way it will be viable both for travellers and flight operating companies,” he said.

The Minister told the delegation that if there was a demand, his Ministry was open to operate “Heli Shuttle” that will soon be operational from Electronics City in Bengaluru to Kempegowda International Airport at Devanahalli in Bengaluru.

On the expansion of Mysore Airport, the Minister told the delegation that though the State Government has allotted 390 acres of land for expansion, it is yet to be handed over for the purpose. “On our part, NAREDCO will start a dialogue with tour operators, travellers and other stakeholders to popularise the flight operations from Mysuru,” Divyesh added.