Update: The airline has suspended bookings from Hindon.
Low cost carrier Air India Express, a fully owned subsidiary of Air India will be starting operations from Hindon Airport from August 01, 2024. The airline will connect Hindon to Bengaluru, Goa and Kolkata. Flights between Bengaluru and Hindon start on August 01, and there will be double daily departures operated by B737-800 as per the booking engine. Flights from Kolkata and Goa – Dabolim will follow from August 15, as per the press release from the airline.
A look at the booking engine shows that the flights from Kolkata and Goa are actually starting on August 12, while the airline is also launching flights from Chennai to Hindon which begin August 20, 2024. This will mean that the airline would scale up the Hindon operations to 35 weekly departures within a span of one month.
As per the approved schedule, Air India Express has approvals to fly to Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Goa – Mopa, Kolkata and Pune from Hindon.
The airline said that it operated over 280 weekly flights from Indira Gandhi International Airport and with operations from Hindon, it will ensure enhanced connectivity to/from other cities in Western UP, Uttarakhand and Haryana. Hindon’s strategic location within the National Capital Region (NCR) ensures seamless access for travellers based out of Central and Eastern Delhi, Noida, Alipur, Agra, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Dadri, Dasna, Dehradun, Faridnagar, Hapur, Haridwar, Khekra, Loni, Meerut, Modinagar, Muradnagar, Noida, Nangloi Jat, Pilkhuwa, Panipat, Rishikesh, Saharanpur, and Sonipat.
About Hindon
Hindon Airport, also known as Hindon Air Force Station, is located in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. This airport primarily serves as a civil enclave operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at the Indian Air Force’s Hindon Air Base. It was inaugurated in October 2019 to alleviate congestion at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, offering an alternative entry point into the National Capital Region (NCR).
Hindon Airport was developed with an eye toward facilitating regional air connectivity under the Indian government’s UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme, aimed at making air travel affordable and widespread. The airport features a modest terminal with the capacity to handle around 300 passengers during peak hours.
Initially, Hindon Airport hosted flights to destinations such as Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, with plans to expand routes to other cities based on demand and operational viability. However, passenger operations have faced challenges including limited flight options and operational restrictions due to its dual use as a military airbase.
The airport currently sees flights from flybig, which operates the Twin otter to Bathinda, Ludhiana and Dehradun while Star Air operates to Nanded, Kishangarh and Adampur.
Hindon – the surprise
Hindon airport has once been an operational fighter base of the Indian Air Force. Today it forms the backbone of its strategic airlift capability. It was opened up for civil operations, but only those under RCS – UDAN since the IGI airport was undergoing upgrades and was short of capacity.
With the Delhi Airports expansion complete, the capacity going up to 100 million passengers annually, the shift of the airline to Hindon will impact the revenue for Delhi Airport. Towards the end of the year, Noida International Airport (NIA) at Jewar is likely to be operational. What happens then will be keenly watched. If these flights to NIA or the civil enclave at Hindon has long term future?
Network Thoughts
The cost of operations at Hindon will be lower than those at IGI, Delhi. With a block time which is almost the same as flying to IGI, if the airline can charge a small premium for the convenience it’s a great win for the airline. However, Air India Express has extensive, if not exhaustive, code share arrangement with Air India and acts as feeder for the mainline service. Isolated operations from Hindon will have to rely purely on the O-D (Origin – Destination) traffic. The airline has mentioned about the traffic to the hills which finds the east of Delhi convenient to fly out, but the flights start after the peak holiday season is over.
It will be interesting to see how the fares hold up leading up to Diwali and what happens when NIA, Jewar becomes operational within a year from now.
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