BHUBANESWAR: Even after the Ministry of Civil Aviation on October 24 warned Air Odisha, which was selected as the scheduled airlines to operate flights from Jharsuguda to Bhubaneswar, Ranchi and Raipur under ‘Udey Desh ka Aam Nagarik’ (UDAN) scheme, for resuming operations at Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) Airport, no concrete steps have been taken so far by the operator in this regard.
The fate of flight operations from VSS continues to hang in balance with arbitrary suspension by the scheduled airline operator Air Odisha. The Ministry had warned Air Odisha of cancelling the award for operating flights on the routes, which will be put up for fresh bidding if it fails to resume the services soon.
“Jharsuguda Airport is a full-fledged functional airport and available for all domestic scheduled and non-scheduled operations. The selected airline under UDAN has been issued show-cause for discontinuing operations quoting technical reasons.
“Non-commencement within prescribed period would lead to cancellation of current award. Routes would be opened for bidding and allocated to eligible airlines for better connectivity,” the statement issued by the Ministry on its official Twitter handle had stated.
VSS Airport officials had also issued a letter to Air Odisha and asked it to resume the operations immediately. “There has been no progress yet in connection with resumption of passenger flights,” VSS Airport Director SK Chauhan told The Express.
“Air Odisha was selected through a tendering process. However, since the airline is not operating, a process has to be followed for taking further steps. The matter will be discussed during a meeting on Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) which is likely to be held in January,” Biju Patnaik International Airport Director and VSS Airport mentor Suresh Chandra Hota said.
The VSS Airport, a longstanding demand of the people of Western Odisha, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 22. However, Air Odisha discontinued flight services from October 7 citing technical issues. Further, the airline had suspended operations without any intimation to the airport authorities.