Regional airline Star Air is launching flights to Nanded this Summer. This will get Nanded back on the air map after being off the air map following the fall of TruJet and pull out by Air India. The airline will operate daily flights to Bengaluru and Hindon, with one-stop flights to Adampur.
Additionally, the airline will also operate to Nanded four times a week (Mon, Tue, Thu, Sun) from Ahmedabad, and five times a week from Hyderabad. The timings for the Bengaluru based rotation are as below
BLR0715 – 0835NDC
NDC0900 – 1100HDO
HDO1125 – 1225AIP
AIP1250 – 1350HDO
HDO1415 – 1615NDC
NDC1645 – 1805BLR
The airline is also offering connectivity to Bhuj via Ahmedabad. All the flights from Nanded will be operated by the E175s, four of which are part of the Star Air fleet and have dual class. The airline will launch Nanded with 23 weekly departures.
Nanded
Nanded is a sacred city in the state of Maharashtra and the last Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh spent his last days in Nanded, passing on the guruship to Guru Granth Sahib – the sacred text. The gurdwara attracts devotees from across the world. The city is on the banks of river Godavari and is a border district with Telangana. The city has been described in the ancient manuscripts with traces to Satvahanas. The economy is a mix of agrarian and tourism based and the city is a regional powerhouse.
The catchment area for Nanded includes Nanded, Latur, Hingoli and Parbhani in Maharashtra and Nizamabad and Adilabad regions of Telangana.
History of Nanded’s air connectivity
Nanded has had a history of air services, starting with Vayudoot in the 1990s. A huge boost came in the form of Kingfisher Airlines operating to Nanded, first as Mumbai – Nanded – Latur – Nanded – Mumbai, and then as Mumbai – Nanded – Latur – Mumbai. This was followed by Go Air starting twice weekly service to Nanded connecting Mumbai and Nagpur, with a one-stop same aircraft flight to Delhi. This offered a day return product from Delhi, for devotees who wished to travel to Nanded. SpiceJet tried the route to Nanded from Delhi via Aurangabad and Air India offered connections from Delhi and Amritsar. TruJet – the all ATR operator, operated to Nanded from Hyderabad.
Star Air’s focus on religious routes
India is seeing a gradual increase in religious tourism. While every city and town in India has a deity, there are certain cities which are holy and this applies to all religions being practised in the country.
Star Air has been operating to Kishangarh in Rajasthan for a while. Over the years, they have increased their presence at Kishangarh to connect the city to Hindon, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Pune and Surat. Kishangarh serves as an airport to fly to Pushkar as well as Ajmer, two holy cities. Nanded is added to the list where the largest demand driver is religious tourism.
Network Thoughts
Air traffic has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade. Towns which are smaller than Nanded are on the air map, albeit with the help of subsidies. A smaller aircraft on one side and higher traffic on the other, could well be the right recipe for Star Air to make Nanded work.
Star Air has spread thin over the last few years. Five of its E145s with which it started operations were owned aircraft while the next four E175s are leased. The airline is privately held and hence financials are not known at regular intervals. Spreading thin might be needed for RCS-UDAN but it increases the cost significantly. The airline needs more stations like Nanded, Shivamogga or Kishangarh where it has multiple departures a day.
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