In a significant development which would go a long way in boosting tourism and help expansion of economic activity in J&K, Chief Minister, Ms Mehbooba Mufti today flagged off maiden evening flight from Srinagar International Airport. Operated by private airliner, GoAir, the flight will take off at 6.40 pm daily from Srinagar International Airport for New Delhi.Minister of State for Forest, Ecology and Environment, Mr Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr Naveen Kumar Choudhary, Secretary Tourism, Mr Farooq Ahmad Shah, Commissioner Civil Aviation, Captain S Katoch, Chief Operating Officer, GoAir, Mr Wolf Gang and Director Srinagar Airport, Mr R K Shinde were present on the occasion.With the operation of regular evening flight, GoAir will be operating six flights daily from Srinagar Airport including four on Srinagar-Delhi and two on Srinagar-Mumbai sectors.The Chief Minister was informed that 34 flights are operating from Srinagar International Airport daily from 6.00 am to 7.00 pm.
The Chief Minister felicitated the management of the GoAir for starting evening flight from Srinagar International Airport and expressed the hope that more operators will start early morning and late evening flights to and from the Airport. She urged the GoAir COO to start late afternoon flight between Srinagar and Jammu as most of the people, including government officials, regularly travel on this sector.The Chief Minister said on the request of the State Government, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Indian Air Force (IAF) have agreed to allow flight operations from Srinagar Airport upto 10.00 pm in the night and the operators should now take advantage of this extended flight operation timing especially in the summer season, when there is maximum tourist inflow to Kashmir.
Mehbooba said the Government is working with various airlines and the Government of India to connect Srinagar and Jammu Airports with other cities of the country through direct flights and also start international flights from Srinagar Airport.She said discussions are on with various airlines to carry fresh flowers from Srinagar to New Delhi and Mumbai to boost the floriculture sector in Kashmir.Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Dr Asghar Hassan Samoon, ADG CID, S M Sahai, Deputy Commissioner Budgam, Mir Altaf Hussain, DIG Central Kashmir Range, Ghulam Hassan Bhat, Director Floriculture, Talat Parvaiz, Director Tourism Kashmir, Mehmood Ahmad Shah, SSP Budgam, Fayaz Ahmad and other officers of tourism, civil aviation, Air Force and GoAir, besides representatives of trade and travel organisations were present on the occasion.