Finally, Shimla to get regular flights

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 7

The plans of the Himachal Government to start helli-taxi services may have failed to take off but the launch of a passenger service by a private airline Air Himalaya Services, connecting Shimla, Chandigrah, Kullu and Dharamsala here on June 9 will go a long way in promoting high-end tourism.

The state capital here has been deprived of air connectivity for the last almost four years when the last flight took off from the Jubbarhatti airport near here in September 2012. With little hope of resumption of regular flights from the state capital here as the matter is pending before the Supreme Court, the launch of the nine seater aircraft will come as a major relief for not just tourists but also locals.

Town and Country Planning and Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma will formally flag off the first flight from Shimla on June 9. The passenger service will be provided by Air Himalaya Services in collaboration with IIC Technologies Limited, Hyderabad. The flights will link Chandigarh, Shimla, Kullu and Dharamsala through Cessna Grand Master Cervan 9 seater aircraft.

(Follow The Tribune on  and Twitter )

“In order to attract high-end tourists and to promote tourism in the state we are making efforts through these non-schedule airline operators to connect the entire region with air connectivity,” said Vijai Singh Mankotia, vice chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Board.

Mankotia further said in order to woo high-end tourist, reliable air connectivity is a must. “We are proposing to take up with Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India the necessity to link Dehradun-Shimla and Dharamsala-Jammu- Leh, as this will help give a fillip to tourism,” he said.

Past efforts of the state government to urge the Centre to provide subsidized air fare in Himachal on the lines of Jammu and Kashmir and North East have failed to yield results. Efforts to seek viability gap funding from the Planning Commission to bring down the fares also failed as exorbitant air fares was also a major hitch.

“The fare for the flight from Kullu to Chandigarh and Shimla to Dharamsala has been fixed at Rs 6,999 and inclusive of all taxes it will cost the customer about Rs 8,000,” said Budhi Prakash Thakur, Chief managing Director of Air Himalaya Service.

He said his endeavour was to provide affordable and reliable air services to the locals as well as tourists as the absence of good air connectivity was a big deterrent to tourism promotion.

The fare for the Shimla-Chandigarh has been fixed at Rs 2,500. The flight from Chandigarh to Kullu will take off at 8.50 a.m, from Kullu to Chandigarh at 9.50 a.m, Chandigarh to Shimla at 10.50 a.m, Shimla to Gaggal at 11.30 am, Gaggal to Shimla at 1 p.m and Shimla to Chandigarh at 2.20 pm daily.

The tourist arrivals to Himachal have been on the rise over the past years and the statistics reveal that a total of 1.71 crore tourists visited Himachal. The state presently has a total of about 2,600 registered hotels.