Air India’s New Year Bonanza: Bhubaneswar-Bangkok Direct Flight

Air India’s New Year Bonanza: Bhubaneswar-Bangkok Direct Flight

Bhubaneswar, December 10: After the direct international flight from Bhubaneswar to Kuala Lumpur, Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) got another feather in its cap when Air India started its Bhubaneswar-Bangkok flight services on Sunday.

A 162-seater Airbus 320 neo aircraft, AI388, was flagged of by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The flight from the city took off with 36 passengers, seven crew members and two pilots. The fight will operate twice in a week on Thursday and Sunday and will leave at 3.45 pm and reach the Suvarnabhumi International Airport at Bangkok at 5.15 pm. The airfare for a passenger would be Rs 12,500.

Similarly, flight AI339 will depart from Bangkok at 5.40 am and reach BPIA at 7 am. The same flight will again depart to Bengaluru as AI739 at 8.45 am and reach the garden city at 11 am; from Bengaluru, flight AI738 will depart at 11.40 am and reach Bhubaneswar at 1.50 pm before flying to Bangkok as AI738.

With the inclusion of these two flights, Air India now has a total of eight flights providing connectivity from Bhubaneswar to other cities.

Vaishnav Rout from Cuttack was very happy that he became the first passenger of Bhubaneswar to Bangkok direct flight. Sharing his happiness, Beisnav said, “I came to know about the direct flight after reading the tweet of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, so I immediately planned a trip to Bangkok. Only four days were left for the first flight and I booked my tickets. And, I was surprised and of course happy to know that I became the first passenger to fly to Bangkok from Bhubaneswar. This would be my first trip to Bangkok and I hope that my family members would have some amazing experience.”Meanwhile, talking to MCL about future plans, Regional Director, Eastern Region, Air India, Captain Rohit Bhasin said, “Actually we have been trying to include Gaya also in this route so that Buddhist heritage cities would be connected. The plan is still on. At present, Bhubaneswar is the starting point but if everything goes well, there are chances that Gaya would become the starting point of the flight and so the route would be Gaya-Bhubaneswar-Bangkok and vice-versa. We are just waiting for the clearance order from higher authorities.”

The authorities are also planning to develop air connectivity to Middle East countries. Informing further, he added, “We are planning to start direct flight to Middle East and we hope it will soon be executed. We are also planning to start some more domestic flights linking Bhubaneswar with more number of cites as Bhubaneswar has a lot of potential.”

Interacting with MCL, Bhubaneswar Airport Director Suresh Chandra Hota said, “The new flight will definitely benefit tourists from the state and vice-versa. We are expecting a good response and we hope more such flights would start from BPIA in near future.”

Tourism Director Nitin B Jawale who was present at the venue said, “With the start of direct flight to Bangkok, a good connection would be developed with the South-East countries which will be a win-win thing for both us and them. We hope there will be good number of incoming tourists than outgoing.”

Earlier in the morning, flight AI 339 arrived at Bhubaneswar  from Bangkok with 18 passengers who were welcomed by government officials.

Feature and banner Image Courtesy: www.staralliance.com