Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia on Tuesday inaugurated a direct flight between Ahmedabad and Gatwick. Air India has now started 3 weekly flights to Gatwick from Ahmedabad. In his address, the union minister said that this new air connectivity will bring in new opportunities for trade and commerce and help Indian students studying in the UK.
Speaking on the connectivity in Ahmedabad, The minister stated that Ahmedabad airport currently can handle 50 lahks domestic and 25 lakh international passengers. The government intends to increase Ahmedabad’s passenger capacity to 1.60 crores.
Minister added that Ahmedabad was connected to only 20 destinations in 2013-14, but under PM Narendra Modi’s leadership, connectivity has boosted to 57 destinations in the last 9 years and also the weekly air traffic movement from Ahmedabad has increased from 980 per week to 2036 per week, increasing by 128%.
Minister tweeted that “ This airline will give a new dimension to India-England relations including trade and will also be helpful in cultural exchange”.
In Gujarat, On the development of the civil aviation sector, the central government has given specific attention to the infrastructure development, the minister said. Also, in Kandla, a new integrated terminal building in Surat worth Rs 250 crores and a new ATC tower cum technical building in Vadodara have been built. At present, Gujarat has 10 airports and it will increase to 12 with the development of two greenfield airports in Dholera worth Rs1305 crores and Hirasar Rajkot for RS 1405 crore.
In Gujarat, the number of flights operating from airports of Gujarat has spiked to over 2500 from 1175 in 2013-14. Under the RCS UDAN scheme, Gujarat has been awarded 83 routes and 55 of them have already been operationalized and the rest will be operational soon.
Balwantsinh Rajput, Minister, Government of Gujarat; Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Campbell Wilson, CEO-Air India were also present.
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