After Bhubaneswar’s Biju Patnaik International Airport began operating round the clock from September 1, it will offer itself as a flight base from October 1.

The facility will allow scheduled flights to make a night halt at the airport. For example, IndiGo’s Kolkata to Bhubaneswar flight lands at 2205. It will stay at the airport overnight and depart for the return journey at 0555.

“Two flights of Indigo will make base here in Bhubaneswar from October 1. The benefit will be that the engineering operations based out of here will generate employment opportunities [to the locals]. It will also enhance early morning and late night connectivity,” says Ramaswamy Mahalingam, the director of Biju Patnaik International Airport.

The second late night IndiGo flight is from Delhi to Bhubaneswar that lands at 1230, and takes off for Delhi 5.5 hours later at 0605.

Being India’s first smart city, Indian airlines see much benefit in increasing connectivity to Bhubaneswar. IndiGo additionally has non-stop service from Bhubaneswar to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai; Air India has direct flights to Bhubaneswar from Mumbai and Delhi; in April Vistara added Bhubaneswar to its network with daily direct connectivity to Delhi; GoAir has direct flights from Bhubaneswar to Mumbai and will add direct service to Bengaluru (Oct 31), Hyderabad (Dec 22), and Kolkata (Dec 22).

aai.aero