 "Nazrul Islam Airport at Andal, near Durgapur")
While the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (Kolkata airport) will continue to cater to the needs of the metropolis, the Andal airport, officially called Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport, in Burdwan district is poised to augment its domestic as well as international flight schedules.
Industry sources said the promoter of Andal airport, Bengal Aetropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL), is in advanced talks with SpiceJet and GoAir to commence operations on routes to western and southern India.
"These operators will start their departure from the summer schedule and may operate the flights to not just New Delhi but to Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad as well", a person familiar with the developments told Business Standard. yu67
This move follows state-owned carrier Air India extending its Kolkata-Durgapur route to the national capital last December.
According to sources, SpiceJet and GoAir are monitoring the flight occupancy rate of Air India which operates the Kolkata-Durgapur-Delhi route, based on which the talks have progressed.
"At this moment, we are getting around 97 per cent occupancy on the Air India flight which starts from Kolkata and lands in New Delhi airport via Durgapur", BAPL's managing director, Partha Ghosh told Business Standard.
Bhutanese carrier Druk Air is also poised to upgrade its presence in the airport from a technical stop to full-fledged passenger operations starting with this year's summer schedule.
The airport's promoter is also keen to bring in Bangladesh based Biman Bangladesh and Nepalese carrier Nepal Airways to commence passenger operations from the airport.
Neither GoAir nor SpiceJet, which is observing its 'silent period' pending a public listing, responded to queries.
While the Andal airport, which started commercial operations in May 2015, is seemingly aggressive in filling its cup to the brim this year, the Kolkata airport will not feel the heat on account of loss of traffic.
"The Andal airport cannot and will not affect the traffic in Kolkata airport", director of Kolkata airport A K Sharma told this newspaper.
Another official in the metropolis' airport pointed out that the catchment area of Andal and Kolkata are very different, and which will therefore not affect Kolkata airport's traffic volumes.
While the Andal airport's target area comprises the towns of Burdwan, Bankura, Bishnupur, Purulia, Suri, Bolpur and Rampurhat in southern West Bengal, with an additional catchment area extending to Dhanbad and Bokaro in neighbouring Jharkhand, Kolkata addresses a more metropolitan traffic.
During April-November 2015, total aircraft movement in the Kolkata airport grew by 4.6% to 68,191 flights, up from 65,178 flights in the same period of 2014. While domestic take-offs and landings grew by a nominal 1.3%, those for international flights rose by nearly 22%.
Passenger volume also saw a substantial increase by 13.7% at 8,021,076 footfalls during April-November last year as against the 7,056,319 footfalls during the same months in 2014.
Travel agents in the state are also in sync with the "mutual coexistence" of the Kolkata and Andal airports, adding that the sales tax exemption on aviation turbine fuel till 2021 for flights refueling at the Andal airport will help in attracting more airlines.
"There is going to be a huge surge in traffic on the Durgapur to other cities' routes and soon there may be a fare-war once private carriers start their operations", a travel agent having international operations told this business daily.
Another city based travel agent, who is expecting cheaper air-fares atleast in the initial days after the private carriers step in said there may be a rush as "it (air-fare) will be just above the rail fare to travel to cities like New Delhi".
The present airfare to Delhi from Andal is Rs. 4,724 while the one from Kolkata is Rs. 4,635.
