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The Air India flight, AI078, took off from Terminal-II for Delhi at 2 pm, ‘flagged off’ by Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram, with other dignitaries present.
Of the 38 international passengers, 35 were to fly on AI to destinations such as London, New York, Dubai, Tokyo and Singapore.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik did not attend, as a protest against the fact that actual international flights had yet to begin. ‘The passengers will get down at Delhi and board other flights to fly to their destinations. We have expressed our protest,” said Pratap Kesari Deb, spokesperson of the ruling Biju Janata Dal.
At present, AI will operate from here on a hub and spoke model, where passengers travel to a big city on their way to different international destinations, said Rohit Nandan, chairman and managing director, Air India. However, they can complete their customs and immigration formalities at Bhubaneswar for the onward journey, he added.
The airline’s AI077 flight will arrive there at 9:05 am, and the international flight, AI078, will take off at 2 pm, daily.
Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “We are in talks with other players like IndiGo, Spice Jet and AirAsia to start flight operations from Odisha.” Efforts would be made to connect 101 destinations in the world, he said.
On Patnaik’s protest, he said passengers from Patna, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Bengaluru were connected to big cities for flying to international destinations. With the availability of sufficient passengers, there would be operations to destinations like London, he added.
The status of the city airport was elevated in 2013 to an international one.
To attract global carriers, the state government recently slashed value added tax on aviation turbine fuel to zero from the earlier five per cent.
FLIGHT CHECK
- 26 airports in the country have scheduled international flights
- Airports that handle international flights are classified as international and customs
- Airports at Port Blair, Srinagar and Imphal are designated as international airports but do not have scheduled international flights
- Airports at Aurangabad, Gaya, Patna, Madurai, Pune, Bagdogra, Chandigarh and Visakhapatnam categorised as customs airports, as these have customs and immigration facilities for limited international operations; except in Aurangabad, Patna and Chandigarh, all customs airports have scheduled international flights
- Bhubaneshwar and Imphal airports designated as international airports in 2013
- Ministry of Civil Aviation has received a proposal to give an international airport status to airports in Bhopal, Indore, Surat and Agartala
