By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 30 Mar: Air Deccan resumed its Delhi-Doon flight today.
Initially there would be 2 daily flights between New Delhi and Dehradun. The first regular flight (DN 510) from Dehradun after the renovation of Jolly Grant Airport took off at 7 a.m. in the morning, while the next flight, DN 516 took off at 5.20 p.m.
The 48 seater ATR-42 plane took off from Delhi (Flight No DN 509) at 5.45 a.m. and landed here exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes, later, at 6.55 a.m. It was carrying only 8 passengers. The plane later took off at 7 a.m. with 16 passengers on board.
The second flight (No DN 515) arrived at Doon with 22 passengers and left with 16 passengers again. There was no senior company representative as it was merely resumption of services following renovation of Jolly Grant Airport.The company did not publicise the resumption of flights as it was not sure if regular flights would be permitted as security arrangements had not been set up till yesterday.
However, security hassles were overcome as the X-Ray machines and other security arrangements were set up today.
Pankaj Shah, Director, Global Passages Pvt Ltd, expressed satisfaction at the response from passengers. Speaking to Garhwal Post, he expressed the hope that the flights would soon be operating to their full capacity. The tariff of this low cost carrier ranges from Rs 500 per ticket (plus taxes amounting to Rs 2050) to Rs 1650 per ticket (plus taxes Rs 2050). Shah said that the service would be properly publicised now that the flights had resumed.
The airport has started operations from a temporary Terminal today. A new permanent terminal is under construction and is expected to take another 10 months to be completed, airport authorities added. Air Deccan plans to launch Airbus or Boeing services from Doon once the permanent terminal becomes operational, it was learnt.
http://www.garhwalpost.com/centrenewsdetail.aspx?id=1719&nt=City