This winter season the people of north-east Karnataka have a special reason to rejoice with the first flight connecting the region with Bengaluru from November 22.
Star Air, a part of business conglomerate Sanjay Ghodawat Group, is scheduled to start its commercial services to connect north-east Karnataka with the rest of India with the world-class flights under the UDAN scheme.
It would also be the first commercial airline in India which will start operating from newly-built Kalaburagi airport.
"Operations initially will be for three days a week and later will be made all seven days!!" Sanjay Ghodawat, Chairman, SGG, announced on Twitter.
"Connecting the unconnected with affordable and world-class aviation services were some of the core reasons why we entered into the airline services," Ghodawat said.
"Star Air is delighted to start its services between Kalaburagi and Bengaluru. This service will help people of Kalaburagi and surrounding areas like Bijapur, Raichur, Bidar, etc., to travel to Bengaluru much swiftly and without hassles," added Simran Singh Tiwana, CEO, Star Air.
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Booking for the flight opened on Wednesday with the base fare per passenger -- Rs 2,850.
Kalaburagi is the hub of all major commercial activities and is famous for its various tourist destinations including Sharana Basaveshwara temple, Buddha Vihar, Khwaja Banda Nawaz Dargah, Gulbarga Fort among many others.
It also has a distinguished Central University, which attracts thousands of students towards it from across the borders, every year, to obtain quality education at an affordable cost.
Star Air uses multiple 50-seater advanced aircraft for its commercial operations, which are manufactured by Embraer having two jet engines powered by Rolls Royce.
Star Air operates under the UDAN scheme. Its 50 per cent of the seats are available at very reasonable rates so that anyone can fly to his dream destination without much expense.
Currently, it provides flight services to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Tirupati, Hubballi, Delhi (Hindon) and Belagavi.