10 new domestic flights to take off from Ahmedabad

Private airlines will be adding up to 10 new flights to existing and new destinations in the monsoon and winter schedule at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, according to a Times of India report by Ankur Jain. New flights will connect Ahmedabad to Nagpur and Trivandrum and increase the number of daily flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. 

Airports Authority of India's (AAI) recently released air traffic figures state that domestic flyers in Ahmedabad moved up from 26,717 in 2009-10 to 28,445 in 2010-11, an increase of around 6.5 per cent. 

Sources said that while Jet Airways is adding three new flights, including Trivandrum via Bengaluru and Pune via Hyderabad and one new flight for Delhi, low-cost carrier Go Air has already started two new flights to Delhi and Mumbai. Also, SpiceJet will soon begin an Ahmedabad-Nagpur direct flight. Sources said Air India is also mulling over new daily flights to Delhi and Mumbai in the morning and evening. 

"The numbers of business travellers have skyrocketed in the last few months. After November last year, daily morning and evening flights to Delhi and Mumbai from Ahmedabad have seen an increased rush. We believe that by the winter session, all the private airlines will increase their domestic flights from Ahmedabad," said a senior private airline official. In 2010, nine new domestic flights were added at Ahmedabad airport in the winter schedule. 

Currently, in the summer schedule, city airport has around 70 domestic flights landing and taking off daily. "A meeting will be held with airlines in June and only then the exact number of new flights will be known. However, with increased traffic at city airport, we estimate around 15 per cent hike in the number of domestic flights," said the senior Ahmedabad airport official.