Flight services to resume from Salem airport in October

Salem airport is getting ready for resumption of flight services. Indigo Airlines will operate flights in the Bengaluru-Salem-Hyderabad and Hyderabad-Salem-Bengaluru sectors. Alliance Air will operate flights in the Bengaluru-Salem-Cochin and Cochin-Salem-Bengaluru sectors. Flight operations are likely to start in the third or fourth week of October.

Flight services will resume from Salem airport in October and two flights will be operated via Salem.

Airport officials said the flight operation date would be announced soon.

The airport is spread over 136 acres and operations commenced three decades ago. At first, flights were operated on the Chennai-Salem-Coimbatore sector. But within three months, due to poor patronage, the service was stopped. After 16 years, in November 2009, service resumed between Salem and Chennai, and in 2011, it came to a halt. After seven years, under the Udan scheme, flight service between Salem and Chennai resumed in 2018. But with COVID-19, passenger arrivals decreased and so, in June 2021, the service was stopped. However, non-scheduled flight operations continued at the airport.

Meanwhile, the Salem Airport Authority has officially announced that passenger flight services would resume in October.

Salem Airport Manager G. Ramesh said under Udan 5.0, Indigo would operate 72-seater flights in the Bengaluru-Salem-Hyderabad and Hyderabad-Salem-Bengaluru sectors. Alliance Air will operate flights in the Bengaluru-Salem-Kochi and Kochi-Salem-Bengaluru sectors. The private airlines are in the process of getting approvals to operate the flights.

“We expect that the flight service will start in the third or fourth week of October. The date for booking flight tickets will be announced by the respective private airlines. Works such as painting, providing extra chairs for passengers, and additional ticket counters are on at the airport and these will be completed by the end of this month,” Mr. Ramesh added.