Agra set for an aviation boom by October

With the monsoon finally making a touchdown in Agra on Saturday and the weather giving some respite, the local tourism industry has begun gearing up, with the Travel Corporation of India (TCI) tying up with two UK-based low-cost carriers to bring in more than 200 weekly international charters to Agra.

Besides the regular charters, the company has received bookings for at least nine international conferences to be held in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad to be held later this year, to be attended by 3,000"�4,000 foreign delegates, who will be brought to Agra in special charters by TCI.

According to TCI Regional Manager A K Lal, the company had inked a deal with UK-based Astraeus and Monarch Airlines to provide ground handling for their aircraft in Agra, besides arranging for the travel, sight seeing, and boarding of the tourists, expected to arrive at the beginning of this tourist season in October.

He said Astraeus and Monarch Airlines had agreed to operate weekly charters to Agra throughout the year, each flight carrying 175-200 passengers, with the Astraeus flights landing in Agra on Tuesdays and Monarch aircraft arriving on Wednesdays.

Besides these pacts, which had been given approval, he said TCI would sell the Agra-Goa-Jaipur charter packages through its 14 international offices. For this, it was yet to decide on an airline operator but the service was scheduled to start by October and in the tourist season, it was expected to operate 60-70 charters in this sector.

Also, he said after a long delay, Kingfisher Airlines too had decided to begin flights between Agra and Goa, as declared by the airline about a year ago, and with the arrival of such a large number of scheduled as well as chartered flights operating on tourism-centric circuits revolving around the Taj Mahal, the tourism industry of Agra was expected to receive a major boost this year, which could translate into big business prospects for the handicrafts, travel and hospitality sectors of the town.