More flights, more routes to link Surat

SURAT: Good news for Surti flyers this summer , beginning April. The Surat airport is all set to buzz with more flights to the domestic destinations with improved passenger facilities being provided by the Airports Authority of India. Private airline companies are vying to operate more domestic flights from the airport to facilitate air connectivity for Surat’s frequent flyers.

Also, a couple of more international flights are likely to be added to its roster by the end of this year.

Domestic destinations including Varanasi, Lucknow, Patna, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Odisha among others may be added to the present list of domestic routes served by Spice Jet, Air Asia, Indigo and other airlines. “With more domestic routes, Surat will be the busiest airport in Gujarat after Ahmedabad,” said Sanjay Kumar Panigrahi, director of Surat airport. He said that at present, the passenger traffic from the airport is at 1.33 lakh per month, which may increase to 1.50 lakh per month. Spice Jet, Indigo, Air India and Air Asia connects the diamond city to various destinations across the country.

According to airport sources, work on internal modification at the terminal building is going on at a fast pace in order to create more space for increased passengers and is likely to get over in the next couple of months.

Member of Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (SGCCI) aviation committee, Manoj Singapuri told TOI, “The SGCCI has been pursuing Go Air for the past couple of years to commence operations from the city. Senior management of the airline too had visited Surat many times. We are positive that this time the airline would start operations here.”

Singapuri said that at present 54 flights to and from Surat airport operate every day. If Go Air, as planned, connects Surat with five to six more destinations, the count of flights will be more than 60 every day. This will also increase passenger traffic per day to 5,400 from the present 4,400.

Activist of the group, ‘We work for a working airport at Surat’, Rajesh Modi said, “Had Surat got a bigger terminal like the ones in Vadodara and Ahmedabad, airline companies would be happy to connect Surat with more destinations. I wish Go Air would explore unserved sectors like Patna, Lucknow, Varanasi, Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar etc to get more traffic.”