Private airline for North-east soon

The North-East is finally set to have its own exclusive private airline with daily flights to Guwahati, Agartala, Lilabari, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Aizawl and Silchar among others.

Guwahati-based Surya Airlines, promoted by Universal Empire Group, which has been waiting in the wings for long after getting licence for scheduled operations, are going to start operations in October this year.

"We are planning to service the NE region exclusively and will have one daily flight to all these destinations," said promoter K Balachandran Nair.

"We had got the licence for scheduled operations in October last year. But certain procedures took time which is why there was a one year delay," added airline vice president Arun Pillai.

The carrier plans to operate with 19 seater Beechcraft aircraft on these routes. They will be deploying three aircraft in the beginning, adding another two in the next six months. "We will add another two depending on the traffic demands.

The airline sees a huge traffic potential in spite of the infrastructural difficulties in the region.

"There is very less service in the region. And there is huge air traffic potential because the other forms of transport like roadways and railways are minimal. We are exploring routes like Dimapur-Imphal, Agartala-Silchar and Imphal-Aizawl which have very few flights and scope for many more," said a company official.

Agrees Amrit Pandurangi of PricewaterhouseCoopers. "If you look at the road service from Agartala, it id in such a dismal condition that there is huge scope for air travel," said Pandurangi.