Flights suspended at six of seven Vidarbha airports, Nagpur's air links also weak

Vidarbha is advancing fast. An industrial boom is under way, investment worth lakhs of crores of rupees is being drawn in and many new industries have already come up. People from outside have arrived and settled here. Unfortunately, the aviation sector is not benefiting from this. The delay in privatising Nagpur airport is still being paid for today.

Whenever demand is made for more flights, airlines instead cut services and push the region back. If Nagpur is being treated this way, the state of Amravati, Gondia, Akola, Yavatmal and Chandrapur can be easily imagined. There is talk of building an airport in Gadchiroli, but the question is what will become of it when the other airports have yet to get aircraft.

Work was done on seven airports with Vidarbha's progress in mind. Of these, only Nagpur, despite being at the centre of the country, is connected to just 12 destinations. Flights from Amravati start at times and stop at others, and Gondia is in much the same position. Aircraft land only occasionally on the airstrips at Yavatmal, Akola and Chandrapur. They are still waiting for regular air service and depend entirely on Nagpur. In the time it takes them to reach Nagpur, they could have reached Dubai or Delhi if the airport in their own district were operational.

Leaders and officials make big promises but have not found a solution. Amravati currently has flights to Mumbai four days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The PM MITRA textile park is coming up there, so it will be necessary to link incoming industries with Surat and Ahmedabad, but no such effort is visible. Flights from Gondia to Hyderabad and Indore had started but are now shut. The UDAN scheme has lost its momentum.

Nagpur has so far been connected only with Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Nanded and Goa. Only 10 domestic and 2 international flights currently operate. Both international flights are to Doha and Sharjah. Qatar Airways has announced that it is withdrawing its Nagpur-Doha-Nagpur flight from 22 October to 29 March 2027. After that, only one international flight will remain from Nagpur from 22 October.

Direct connectivity to places such as Bhopal, Surat, Jaipur, Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Coimbatore, Kozhikode, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Chandigarh, Ranchi, Lucknow and Patna would be a great convenience for traders and entrepreneurs here, as well as for students and working travellers. To travel to Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, connecting flights are still needed. After Chennai, Belagavi, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Nashik and Lucknow, direct air links with Kishangarh have now also been cut.

The number of airports in the country has risen sharply in recent years to around 160, of which 17 are international airports. Nagpur is among them. Unfortunately, this international airport in name runs only 2 flights, and one of them is about to stop. No one tried to expand international routes. Many announcements were made, but no one succeeded. The world remains out of reach.

After considerable effort, the Centre approved the privatisation of Nagpur airport and it was handed over to GMR. Expectations from UDAN had risen considerably, but the reality is that flights from Nagpur have decreased rather than increased. In terms of destinations, there are only a few that can be counted on the fingers.

Despite being in the middle of the country, no one has been able to muster the courage to connect the whole country. Leaving aside the country, no flight other than to the state capital could be started from here. When the state itself has not been fully connected, how can our leaders speak of taking 'flight' under UDAN?