India's first private greenfield airport at Andal near Durgapur,
West Bengal continues to struggle even after a year of its commissioning.
The airport project which is developed by the Bengal Aerotropolis Project
limited (BAPL) which has Singapore's Changi Airport as one of its stake holder,
is located just 170 km away from the Kolkata Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
International Airport, the prime airport of East India. Therefore it is facing
challenges in convincing new airlines to fly from the airport as it is too
close to Kolkata airport. After long delays the airport had secured final
operational clearance from the aviation regulator DGCA on 24 April 2015 and
scheduled commercial flight operation started on 18 May 2015; Air India under
its regional arm Alliance Air was the first airline to operate 3 weekly flights
on Kolkata-Durgapur-Kolkata sector with 48 seater ATR-42 turboprop
aircraft. Alliance Air had agreed to serve the route under the
'viability gap funding' scheme where the airport
operator guarantied for a minimum load or compensate for the same so
that the airline didn't make any loss on the route. But the response of
the 45 minute short flight was muted given the sector was already well
connected though Rail and road transports facilities.
Bhutanese flag carrier Druk Air has entered into an agreement with
the airport operator where it will use Durgapur Airport as a technical and
refueling stop. Since Durgapur doesn't have clearance for international flight,
Druk Air not able to operate commercial flight service at the moment. BAPL
also is in talk with several private airlines in order to start direct flight
to Mumbai and 1 or 2 destinations in South India. But all depends on the
success of its maiden Delhi service by Air India as private operators having a
close eye on the statistics of the route. Let's have a look at the performance of
the two routes currently in operation from Durgapur Airport, Delhi and Kolkata.
From May to November 2015, Alliance Air
only operated point to point service between Kolkata and Durgapur which used to
be the only route of the airport. And as per DGCA released data of domestic
city-pair passenger traffic, the route was not at all successful with below 50%
loads on an average. From December Air India had commenced
Kolkata-Durgapur-Delhi Airbus service while Alliance Air continued its ATR
service till late December. This had brought complexity in the operation as a
flight originating from Kolkata not just have passengers destined for Durgapur
but also passengers flying one-stop to Delhi via Durgapur. Now it is surprising
to see there a sharp fall in the Kolkata-Durgapur traffic in December and
January at a time when the service was upgauged from ATR-42 to Airbus
A319. But the exact load factor of those two routes could not be calculated for
the month of December and January on Kolkata-Durgapur and Durgapur-Delhi
route as it also might have carried some one-stop passengers on
Kolkata-Delhi route. However one can doubt the appeal of such one-stop
flight on the well served Kolkata-Delhi route as 22 daily non-stop flights (one
way) operate on the route including Air India's own 4 daily service. Air India
flies double daily Dreamliner service on the route.
Month
|
CCU-RDP pax
|
RDP-CCU pax
|
Total pax
|
Load factor
|
Aug’15
|
86
|
135
|
221
|
17.70%
|
Sep’15
|
176
|
239
|
415
|
33.25%
|
Oct’15
|
183
|
332
|
515
|
41.26%
|
Nov’15
|
154
|
362
|
516
|
41.34%
|
Dec’15
|
152
|
165
|
317
|
--
|
Jan’15
|
27
|
118
|
145
|
--
|
 |
| Air India's inaugural flight being welcomed with cannon shower at Durgapur |
On 7 December 2015, Air India officially launched 3 weekly
Kolkata-Durgapur-Delhi flights and return with 144 seater Airbus A319 aircraft
with regular service started from 21 December 2015 while Alliance Air continued
its Kolkata-Durgapur ATR-42 service till 18 December 2015; January 2016 was the
first full month of the Delhi-Durgapur flight and total 1,037 passengers flew
between Durgapur and Delhi during the month against a monthly seat capacity of
3,744 on the route. But this doesn't reflect the actual loads of the route as
the same flight also offers one-stop connection on the Kolkata-Delhi route. But
the January 2016 passengers data shows a great challenge for the Durgapur
Airport.
Flight No.
|
Origin: Departure
|
Destination: Arrival
|
Frequency
|
AI 733
|
Kolkata: 08:25
|
Durgapur: 09:00
|
1,3,5
|
AI 733
|
Durgapur: 09:30
|
Delhi: 11:45
|
1,3,5
|
AI 734
|
Delhi: 12:35
|
Durgapur: 14:40
|
1,3,5
|
AI 734
|
Durgapur: 15:20
|
Kolkata: 15:55
|
1,3,5
|
