CHANDIGARH – Though Punjab’s boisterous politicians would like to showcase the state’s progress by showing off the new airports in the state, the economic unviability of these airports reveals the state’s flawed policy of development.
Over the past few years, the state has been trying to build world-class airports. However, while building these airports, the state’s policy makers forgot to take into account, whether these would be economically viable. Of the three airports that are operational in the state, the ones at Amritsar and Ludhiana are running into huge losses, while the Bathinda airport is yet to take off.
The only airport in the state which runs flights on a regular basis is the Guru Ramdas ji International Airport in Amritsar, from where six airlines operate their flights. Ludhiana airport has managed to get just one flight operator, which runs one flight, thrice a week, between Ludhiana and Delhi. The much-hyped Bathinda airport, which was built more than a year ago, has failed to attract any flight operators. Most of the operators have reportedly told the Civil Aviation ministry that they do not foresee any regular traffic from Bathinda, which makes this air route economically unviable.
In the region, it is only the Chandigarh Airport which is running smoothly. As many as 15 flights take off from here daily. But while the air traffic to other parts of the country is good, attempts to connect important cities of the region from Chandigarh have failed. A direct chartered flight between Chandigarh and Amritsar was launched recently, but had to be suspended because of poor traffic on this route.
