Bengal wants no-frills regional airline

As a first step, West Bengal has approached the Union government to revive number of abandoned air strips in districts of the state to promote regional air travel between Assam, Bihar, Orissa and Chattisgarh.

"We are trying to revive air strips in Malda, Balurghat and Coochbehar so that regional service can be introduced connecting Kolkata with these towns and other eastern region centres Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhubaneshwar, Bagdogra and Guwahati," top sources said.

To begin with, Alliance Air may start the service with 17-seater aircraft. "It does not need to buy them since these aircraft are available on dry lease. However, there are interest from private entrepreneurs as well," they added.

The sources said there was adequate demand for a low-cost airline providing a basic air transit service.

"It has to offer the air service but frills like catering, and with one or two cabin crew. Since the fare will be affordable, such service will be popular among tourists and businessmen," they pointed out.

In fact eastern region has recorded good growth in air travel this year in domestic as well as international sectors.

Traffic went up 30 per cent in the domestic and 20 per cent in the international sector over last year's figures. Cargo rose 10 per cent.

Some new flights, both domestic and international, have started operating out of Kolkata. Gulf Air will connect Kolkata with west Asia twice a week from November 25.

"The growth in international travel from Kolkata can be largely attributed to IT sector which has seen activity. We expect the trend to continue and further consolidate as more and more new players are said to be coming here," Sanjoy Sett, chairman, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) said.

State government sources said it was in touch with civil aviation ministry to start daily flight to Tokyo and Frankfurt. The state has asked Air India to restart flights to Kolkata.

To improve facilities at Kolkata, the civil aviation ministry has decided to build a new international terminal at a cost of Rs 48 crore. Once completed, it would be able to satisfy needs of international fliers.