Hindon, which has become the second airport to function from the National Capital Region, will vault into the big league with the initiation of daily flights to and from Kolkata. Currently small airlines operate on short routes from Hindon. But Air India Express — a subsidiary of Air India and a part of the Tata Group – will be the first airline to operate out of Hindon airport with a jet engine airliner, a spokesperson of the company said.

The Kolkata-Hindon flights will begin from March 1. The flight will operate daily, while the return flights will operate six days a week. There will be no flight on Saturdays.

The flights will take off at 7.10 am from Kolkata and reach Hindon at 9.30 am. The return flights will leave Hindon  at 5.20 pm and reach the eastern metropolis at 7.40 pm.

With this expansion, Air India Express will operate from two airports in the National Capital Region (NCR) – Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi and Hindon Airport in Ghaziabad, the spokesperson said.

The civil terminal at Hindon was opened initially to accommodate the government’s  Regional Connectivity Scheme. But there were no takers and the airport had to be shut down for about eight months. 

Air traffic control in Hindon is being provided by the Indian Air Force. Its Civil Enclave was developed and managed by AAI, which also caters to VIP and non-scheduled flights.

The airport is expected to provide a convenient alternative for travellers from east and central Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad.
Besides Kolkata, the airline also plans to connect Goa and Bengaluru to Hindon with six daily flights from each city.

The Kolkata-Hindon flights were expected to start from August last year but were postponed.

“We connect to 14 direct destinations from Kolkata including Hindon. Some of the key destinations are Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Guwahati and Hyderabad,” the spokesperson said.

(With PTI inputs)