New airline to bring more flights to city
PATNA: At a time when the airline industry is abuzz with talks of reducing the number of flights to small centres, the entry of a new low-cost
carrier, ZAV Airlines, in the near future may actually see Patna getting more.
The new airline will be operating in the eastern sector. It has plans to introduce flights between Patna and some important cities of eastern India, including Kolkata and Ranchi.
ZAV was granted licence by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as a regional operator for eastern and north-eastern regions a few months ago. It opened its office in Ranchi sometime back. It was recently allotted space for office at Patna airport.
"We intend to introduce flights by the end of this year and right now we are in the process of purchasing aircraft," ZAV chairman Kishore Zaveri told TOI on phone from Kolkata on Friday.
He said the airline also has plans to connect Purnia in Bihar and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand with Patna. "Details would be available once we commence the flights," Zaveri added.
Meanwhile, the turmoil in the aviation sector may lead to reduction of flights in Patna as far as existing operators are concerned.
Sources in the airline industry said that following the latest understanding between Kingfisher and Jet, the city may lose the Jet Airways late evening Patna-Delhi flight as Kingfisher Red is already operating an evening flight on the same route. It would be a logical decision as the late evening flight of Jet has registered a very poor occupancy rate, sources said.
Cost cutting, said a source, may also catch up with the government-owned Indian Airlines. While one of the two Indian Airlines flights on the Patna-Delhi route would operate daily, the other one is likely to operate thrice a week in days to come, sources said.
Interestingly, neither Jet nor Indian Airlines officials are willing to speak on the issue claiming that they have no official information.
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