Bhubaneswar Flights to Calcutta, Chennai stopped

In a severe blow to the government’s dream to upgrade Biju Patnaik Airport to an international airport, Air India has stopped flying its two flights connecting Bhubaneswar with Kolkata and Chennai. The bad news comes just ahead of the onset of the peak tourist season. While the Bhubaneswar-Chennai (AI-537) flight of the country’s official carrier stopped operating from Saturday, the Bhubaneswar-Calcutta (AI-770) flight will not be available from today.

Various industry bodies have resented Air India’s withdrawal of flights from Bhubaneswar to Chennai and Kolkata, stating that the abrupt move will adversely impact business.

“The decision will hamper not only tourism, but also the prospect of other industries in the state,” said J K Mohanty, chairman of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO).

Sources said Air India was mulling the cessation of these two flights for quite sometime now. In fact, the airlines had suspended its services to the two metro cities from Bhubaneswar on a temporary basis on July 20 this year.

Flight operations to Chennai resumed on September 1, and to Calcutta on September 16. However, this time round, the operator seems to have pulled the plug on the service between Bhubaneswar and these two cities permanently.

Around a dozen conferences are scheduled to be held in the capital city between November 2012 and January 2013. All these meetings, mostly medical seminars, will be instantly hit. Delegates from Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata, who were supposed to arrive in Bhubaneswar in Air India flights will not be able to make it to the city. This will affect business of around Rs 150 crore, Mohanty said.

The HRAO has sent a memorandum to the Union civil aviation minister, asking it to restore the two flights and flights to Bangalore, Raipur, Varanasi and Hyderabad from Odisha, which AI had stopped earlier.