SpiceJet To Operate Delhi-Shillong Direct Flights
The Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC) and SpiceJet airlines entered into an alliance on Saturday under which direct flights will be operated between Shilling and Delhi.
According to reports, the direct flights will be available on every Monday and Friday and comes after efforts initiated by the Meghalaya government in 2020.
Earlier Big Charter Pvt Ltd or FlyBig was supposed to operate direct flights between Shillong and the national capital. A deal had been signed by both the sides, however, it did not materialize.
FlyBig was supposed to provide the service with a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft that had been chartered from SpiceJet. FlyBig went on to announce its inability in operating the direct flight service despite the aircraft having been successfully deployed.
Following their announcement, the contract between the Meghalaya government and FlyBig was torn down.
Meanwhile, it has come to the fore that the same aircraft will now be used by SpiceJet to provide the direct route from Shillong to Delhi. The route is expected to be operational by February 20, 2023.
It may be noted that SpiceJet, the only carrier that ran daily flights to and from the greenfield airport in Sikkim's Pakyong, temporarily suspended services in the hill state from October 30 due to "operational constraints", a PTI report at the time stated.
According to a spokesperson of the budget airline, bad weather and low visibility were bottlenecks that led to the decision.
"SpiceJet flights to and from Pakyong airport have been temporarily suspended with effect from October 30, 2022, due to operational constraints owing to the bad weather condition and low visibility at Pakyong.
"Pakyong is a VFR (Visual Flight Rules) airport and does not have instrument landing facilities… To avoid inconvenience to our passengers, flight operations have been temporarily suspended. We will share an update once the services resume," the spokesperson said.
A notice to this effect has been put up at the reception and the ticket counter of the airport.
An airport official said on the condition of anonymity that SpiceJet has suffered significant losses during the monsoon season when the carrier had to cancel flights due to bad weather.
