Flight Service at Odisha’s Second airport, Veer Surendra Sai(VSS) Airport, Jharsuguda is all set to take off again under ‘Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik’ (UDAN) scheme from March 31st.
The budget carrier Spicejet is set to operate daily direct flights to the Veer Surendra Sai Airport, Jharsuguda from Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata under UDAN scheme.
The first flight of Spicejet will take off from Delhi at 13:15 and would reach Jharsuguda at 15:10 in the evening.
“It a historical moment for us, as for the first time any bigger commercial flight will land at VSS Airport. As there is a model code of conduct in place so we haven’t organized any grand function for this event. However, we have planned to give a water cannon salute to the first flight of Spicejet coming from Delhi on Sunday.” said Sudesh Kumar Chauhan, Airport Director, VSS Airport, Jharsuguda
VSS Airport, Jharsuguda has been built at 10275.5 acres of land with an estimated cost of 210 Crores with a contribution of Rs. 75 Crores from the State Government. with a handling capacity of 300 Passengers.
The airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 22nd, 2018 and had flagged off flight operated by Air Odisha under UDAN 1.0. but the license of Air Odisha was cancelled for failing to operate minimum scheduled flights.
Subsequently, the cancelled and additional routes where again inducted in the bidding process under UDAN 3.0 Scheme, where majorly four airlines companies Alliance Air, Spice jet, Turbo Aviation and Jet Airways had been awarded to operate from Jharsuguda to six major cities including Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi.
On 27th February, Spicejet airlines had announced its commercial operation and had started its booking for the same.
The airline will be deploying its Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the Jharsuguda-Delhi-Jharsuguda sector whereas the other two UDAN sectors of Jharsuguda-Hyderabad-Jharsuguda and Jharsuguda-Kolkata-Jharsuguda would be served by its Bombardier Q400 fleet.
