Uttarakhand on Air Map

The Uttarakhand govt. has completed the up-gradation work at the Jolly Grant Airport near Dehradun and Pant Nagar Airport. The Ministry of civil aviation has said that the services to these airports are scheduled to start at the end of Feb 2008. The Tourism ministry of state is talking to all airlines to start operations to these airports and has got responses from Indian, Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines.

While Deccan will initially start with a frequency of two flights a week, the other two airlines are yet to decide on their flight frequency. Now both the airports have the capacity to handle the landing of Airbus 320 and Boeing 787. The jolly Grant Airport will cater to Garhwal Region and Pant Nagar Airport for Kumaon Region.

Besides this, State Govt. is also planning to start Helicopter service and is in talks with several players for the same.

No doubt passengers will have more option to travel to this region, but high taxes charged by airlines will have negative impact on the occupancy level for flights to these sectors. Dehradun and Kumaon region are well connected with rail transport which will give tough fight to airlines.