Surat: Air India has decided to wind down its entire operations ahead of AirAsia’s arrival in Surat. The airline has announced the decision to stop the morning flight on the Delhi-Surat route from March 8 onwards. Both these flights morning and night were important to get international connectivity from Delhi on a single PNR ticket. Tourists from Surat who wanted to catch a flight to an international destination after reaching Delhi will now have to go through the hassle of reaching Mumbai, Delhi early and catching an international flight. Following the merger of airlines including AirAsia, Air India Express, Air India and Alliance Air into the Tata Group, AirAsia has announced one-way flights from Surat to Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Goa (via) daily and connecting 6 to 8 cities from March 3. But before and after this announcement, Air India decided to stop both flights from Surat to Delhi.
The morning flight was discontinued in Dec-2022. Now the evening flight will also stop. Leaders of V.Work for Working Airports at Surat Group said, Surat sector seems to have been handed over to Air Asia from March 8. Even in the summer schedule, Air India has stopped taking bookings for Delhi-Surat-Delhi evening flights. Due to this, the passengers of Surat will now face a huge loss of international connectivity of Air India and Star Alliance. It is believed that international seamless connectivity will be available through AirAsia. But it seems at this stage that we have to wait for a long time. Surat passengers fly from Surat due to efforts at all levels fighting for the connectivity of Surat airport. The trend is quite likely to break again. If this flight stops from March 8, considering the issue of international connectivity, there may be a vacuum for probably 6 to 8 months. Sanjay Jain, leader of the group, said that the Working Airport Group has proposed to the airlines and MPs to continue the Delhi-Surat-Delhi evening flight until international access is provided through Air Asia.
The Delhi-Surat flight, which Surat had obtained by giving a bank guarantee of Rs 3 crore, was also stopped
Surat is the first city in India’s aviation history to get Air India’s Delhi-Surat daily flight by providing a bank guarantee of Rs 3 crore from three industry associations. The flight was so successful that the airlines stepped forward and cut short the contract by asking the three associations to withdraw the bank guarantee. Surprisingly, even this most successful flight from Surat to Delhi has been stopped by Air India since December. AI 489/490 is a historic flight for which the Surat MPs gave a bank guarantee of 3 crores to the state-run airlines.
12,11,800 passenger movements recorded at Surat airport in the year 2022
353 crore developmental works at Surat airport at a snail’s pace and a series of curbs due to flight closures, Surat airport recorded 12,11,800 passengers in the year 2022 despite fewer flights. That means an average of 1,00,983 passengers are using Surat Airport per month. In the year 2022, 12,11,800 passengers have been registered at Surat airport with 11,82,375 domestic and 29,425 international passengers. Last month December 2022 saw 99,267 domestic and 3938 international passenger movements of 1,03205 passengers. Similarly, total hourly movement of 306 metric tons of cargo has also been recorded in December.