Air India – part of the Tata group, will be launching flights to Bhuj starting March 01, 2024. The airline will connect Bhuj to Mumbai with a daily flight operated by A320 family aircraft. The flight will depart Mumbai at 0705 hours and reach Bhuj at 0820 hours, operating as AI 601. The return flight will depart Bhuj at 0855 hours and land in Mumbai at 1010 hours, operating as AI 602. Bookings currently show the flight being operated by one of the all economy configured aircraft.
Bhuj is a new station for Air India. The group has been adding new stations with Gwalior and Ayodhya being announced for low cost subsidiary Air India Express in recent past. Bhuj is a gateway to Kutch region of the western state of Gujarat. Additionally the city and surroundings are famous for temple and forts. Bhuj airport is serviced by Alliance Air and Star Air with Alliance Air flying from Mumbai with the ATR 72-600 and Star Air flying from Ahmedabad. The airport is a frontline Indian Air Force base with a small civil terminal maintained and operated by the Airports Authority of India while the ATC and runway is controlled by the Indian Air Force.
The entry of Air India on the Mumbai – Bhuj sector will give one-stop connectivity from Bhuj to San Francisco with a four to six hour connecting time and also to London on the long haul and to some points in the middle east on the short haul international flights. As Air India gears up to add more international services from Mumbai, the connectivity would go up over a period of time.
One flight a day stations are relatively difficult to operate and recover costs quickly, however when it comes to a route like Mumbai – Bhuj which has seen great traffic in the past in the heydays of Jet Airways, the lack of competition and Kutch becoming more popular in the last few years – the addition will be a welcome news for the region, travel and tourism as well as the large diaspora who travels to the region.
Bhuj is one of the few airports which hasn’t recovered from the fall of Jet Airways. In 2018, the traffic between Mumbai and Bhuj averaged over 9000 passengers per month each way, this is now down to less than 1500 passengers per month each way – partly due to lack of capacity. The domestic market overall has grown in excess of 10%
The addition further strengthens presence of Air India group in Gujarat where it already operates to Ahmedabad, Surat, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Vadodara.
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