Under the UDAN scheme, of which SpiceJet is a key airline, Puducherry will receive one more flight operated by the carrier — from Bengaluru — February 15 onward.
The new service at the developing airport comes after the success of SpiceJet’s Puducherry-Hyderabad flight.
Bengaluru-Puducherry: 0940-1030, daily
Puducherry-Bengaluru: 1050-1210, daily
Hyderabad-Puducherry: 0945-1120, daily
Puducherry-Hyderabad: 1140-1310, daily
SpiceJet had launched the Bengaluru-Puducherry service in 2013, but stopped after a year due to lack of financial benefits.
Puducherry is one of India’s un-served airports, which has been revived only last year under the government’s UDAN scheme.
In October 2017, on speaking about the importance of connecting the Puducherry airport to more cities, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju had said, “Every passenger travelling from Puducherry to Hyderabad need not be Hyderabad-bound. He could be going anywhere in the world. We have found potential in Puducherry and the UDAN scheme is to unlock the local potential and this is the potential we have to pull out from such places.”
He mentioned that he had “written to the previous Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and requested them to provide land for expansion. We are still pursuing it. The SpiceJet aircraft is being operated from Puducherry to Hyderabad under UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagarik) scheme and it has been a success”.
Puduchery is one of the country’s popular tourist destinations. It is about a four-hour drive from the Chennai airport. Increase in flight services will definitely boost tourism to Puducherry that has a large number of international visitors too.
