Bhubaneswar:The Odisha chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, Friday urged the union civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu to restore the Air India flights to Bangkok and Bangaluru from Bhubaneswar. The Air India had a couple of days back suspended the flight services in these two routes.
Patnaik, in a letter to the union minister, requested Prabhu to prevail upon the Air India authorities to re-introduce the flight services with immediate effect. While the suspension of the the flights to Bangkok will affect the tourism sector of the state, the Bangaluru flight will have its impact on IT industry in the state, he pointed out. The chief minister said that with the upgradation of the Bhubaneswar airport into an international airport it was expected that the city would be connected to more destinations abroad. “But, the abrupt suspension of the existing operations has been a severe jolt to the Aviation and Tourism sector in the State,” he said. He added that the Air India should also explore the possibility to start international operations from Bhubaneswar to other South East Asian destinations like Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka considering the immense potential in these routes.
