Cheaper Delhi flight a dream

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 19

Aimed at providing affordable air travel to the common man under the Udan scheme, the subsidised nine seats for Rs 2,500 in the Shimla-Delhi flight are booked till August, leaving the locals and those in an emergency situation high and dry.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, launching the part-subsidised flight from the Jubbarhatti airport on April 27, 2017, had said, “Hawai chappal pehan ne wala bhi ab hawai safar kar sakta hai.” The scheme had kindled hope among the locals that air travel to Delhi would be affordable for them but this has failed to happen.

However, with the subsidised seats being out of reach of anyone with prior booking and the fare for the other commercial seats between the Shimla-Delhi route being around Rs 19,000, air travel is far from the reach of the common man. The Jubbarhatti airport, located 21 km from the state capital, has the only flight between Shimla and Delhi. “The nine subsidised seats per flight are all booked up to August. So there is no chance of any local or a person in emergency getting to travel at Rs 2,500,” says Deepak Sood, owner of Ambassador Travels. He says the fare for the nine seats hovers anywhere between Rs 2,100 and Rs 2,500.

The 42-seater ATR plane lands from Delhi with about 32 persons but due to short runway, it can take off with only 15 persons. Sood also emphasises the fact that even if there is a speck of cloud in the sky, the chances of the Delhi-Shimla flight being cancelled are very high. With airfare of about Rs 19,000, hardly any local uses the flight and mostly tourists are using it.

In a sharp contrast to Shimla, the Gaggal airport near Dharamsala has four flights daily, with two flights each of Air-India and SpiceJet. “The flights are convenient and the fare of about Rs 6,500 is affordable and used frequently by the locals,” says a local Praveen Sharma. In case of the Bhuntar airport near Kullu, the fare on the lone Air-India flight costs anywhere between Rs 18,000 and Rs 20,000 but with Kullu-Manali being a popular tourist destination, there is enough traffic on the route.

With the runway of all three airports being short due to unavailability of vast expanse of land, only 42-seater planes can land and take off. To make matters worse, the passengers at the time of take off have to be almost half.

What PM had said

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, launching the part-subsidised flight from the nearby Jubbarhatti airport on April 27, 2017, had remarked, “Hawai chappal pehan ne wala bhi ab hawai safar kar sakta hai.” 
• The scheme had rekindled hope among the locals that air travel to Delhi would be affordable for them but this has failed to happen
• In a sharp contrast to Shimla, the Gaggal airport near Dharamsala has four flights daily

The situation

However, with the subsidised seats being out of reach of anyone with prior booking and the fare for the other commercial seats between Shimla-Delhi being around  Rs 19,000, air travel is far from the reach of the common man. The Jubbarhatti airport, located 21 km from the state capital, has the only flight between Shimla and Delhi