Daily Deccan flight to Bellary from March 30

Deccan, a part of the UB Group-owned Kingfisher Airlines, will start daily flights between Bangalore and Bellary from March 30. The airline is presently operating flights five days a week between the two destinations.

According to Capt G R Gopinath, Vice Chairman, Deccan Aviation, the budget airline had recently suspended daily flight to Torangallu near Bellary due to the damage caused to one of its ATR aircraft in Bangalore a few months ago.

"We have now repaired our aircraft and are ready to resume daily flights on this route. We are also equipped to fly to any other city in the state if the government provides us minimum facility like a grass airstrip," he said.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of tourism investors' meet, here today, Gopinath said there is a huge potential available to connect small cities of the state with Bangalore and Deccan is ready to operate flights to cities like Bidar, Bijapur, Hassan and Shimoga.

"The state government has invited tenders to develop smaller airports in these cities and we are looking forward to connecting them," he said.

He said Deccan is waiting for the defence ministry to give permission to start air service to Bidar. The airport here belongs to the Indian Air Force and the state government should get approval from the Centre to open it up for the civilian use, he said.

Commenting on the HAL airport which will be closed after the opening of the new Bangalore international airport at Devenahalli, Gopinath said the government should try to operate both airports like many other countries in the world have done.

"Its an anti-development initiative. We should not lose an existing infrastructure to the new infrastructure. The government has made a mistake and the public has to fight their case to retain the existing airport," he said.

Earlier, speaking at the recently-concluded Tourism Investors' Meet, organised by the state tourism department, Gopinath urged the government to develop mini airports in important tourism destinations in the state which will help promote tourism and attract investment.

"We don't need bigger airports and huge investment to develop small airports. What we now need is a grassy airstrip like the one present in Dindigul in Tamil Nadu, where we first flew five years ago. The state government need to invest hardly Rs 60-70 crore to develop 15-20 airstrip which will enable us to land and take off small 45-seater aircraft," he said.

The development of such mini airports will serve many purposes like movement of VIPs and also on occasions like natural disasters to carry out relief operations, he added.