Heritage Aviation (Delhi International) will launch the first scheduled route out of Ghaziabad, a converted military airport designed to relieve congestion at Delhi International, on October 8, 2019, the Times News Network agency has reported.
The regional specialist said it would launch daily services to Pithoragarh in the country's extreme north in October using a Beech (twin turboprop) King Air 350. Going forward, it plans to increase the frequency to double daily. For its part, Star Air (India) (S5, Belgaum) is planning to debut services to Hubli as of October 27.
Both routes will be operated under the UDAN (Regional Connectivity Scheme).
The Indian government hopes to see more regional traffic relocate from Delhi to Hindon. The new passenger terminal at the latter airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2019, shortly before the Indian general elections, but has so far failed to attract scheduled traffic.
Although Delhi's international airport - which is located some 30 kilometres away from Hindon - is still operating near its capacity, the bankruptcy of Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai International) freed up enough slots to permit some growth for other carriers at the main capital gateway.
Despite this, IndiGo Airlines is reportedly mulling launching A320 flights from Hindon. However, as the airport was built with turboprop operations (such as IndiGo's ATR72-600s) in mind, the LCC would require a special permit to deploy a narrowbody jet out of Hindon.
