South Indian airline, Paramount Airways, could be the first one to start operations to Cooch Behar, which is not yet connected by any other carrier.
The airport was recently modernised by the Airports Authority of India(AAI) with an investment of Rs 37 crore that included construction of a new terminal building and a new air traffic control cum fire station building. Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has been trying to pursuade carriers to start flight services to Cooch Behar since last year. He held talks with Paramount in February this year.
"The state government has approached us and we are actively considering Cooch Behar as a destination if it makes good business sense for us. The chief minister has also assured us that he might allow government officials to fly Paramount Airways, which is an all-business class airline", M Thiagarajan, managing director, Paramount said here today as the airline began operations with daily flights between Chennai and Kolkata, Agartala and Guwahati. Flights to Cooch Behar will be smaller 72 -seaters without a first class facility. Kolkata will also be linked to other southern destinations like Madurai, Coimbatore, cochin, Trivandrum, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Thiagarajan had announced after his February meeting with Bhattacharjee that his airline will link Kolkata with the southern destinations and also use it as the hub for catering to the North Eastern market.
The airline plans to cover all major cities in the western region by 2009. It has recently launched operations in the western region in Goa, Pune and Ahmedabad. "We want to connect all major national destinations by the end of this year, while evaluating connecting international destinations within two years time," Thiagarajan said. It now operates 2,000 flights per month to 15 destinations in the country with an 80 per cent average load factor. Paramount was also looking at increasing its fleet of five aircrafts now to 20 by 2010.