Flights from Hisar remain suspended for 3 months

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, December 18

The air shuttle services from the local airport have been suspended since September and they are unlikely to resume any time soon. Reason: the airport lacks the instrument landing system, which helps in landing in low visibility, and the night vision facility, sources say.

Deputy Commissioner Ashok Kumar Meena said he had no information about the resumption of services and only the Civil Aviation Department could say anything about it.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had, on September 3, inaugurated the air shuttle services with much fanfare. Private carrier SpiceJet had started a seven-seater flight. Initially, two flights a day were planned, but it was restricted to one flight for five days a week. The air fare was fixed at Rs1,674 for a one-way trip.

But within days of the launch, the flight was suspended. The last flight that took off from here was on September 19.

No Spicejet official was available for comments. A travel agent said the airlines had cited technical reasons for grounding the services and there was no word on resuming the flight as of now.

Haryana had become the first state in the country to take an initiative for enhancing regional connectivity on the guidelines of the Centre’s scheme UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik), but it has failed to keep the flights operational.

A department official said the authorities were preparing estimates for installing the instrument landing system, which would ensure landing in foggy days. He hoped the state government would approve the estimates soon.