Alliance Air's first Gorakhpur-Lucknow flight takes off

Air India's wholly-owned subsidiary - Alliance Air - on Sunday commenced daily direct flights from Gorakhpur to Lucknow and back. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri, flagged off the Gorakhpur-Lucknow inaugural flight of Alliance Air (Air India) at Mahayogi Gorakshnath Airport Gorakhpur on Sunday.

Gorakhpur (UP): It is a Holi bonanza for the aviation sector of Uttar Pradesh as national carrier Air India's wholly-owned subsidiary Alliance Air on Sunday commenced daily direct flights from Gorakhpur to Lucknow and back.

As many as seven new routes will be opened for air travel - five from Sunday while two routes will have flights from Monday.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri, flagged off the Gorakhpur-Lucknow inaugural flight of Alliance Air (Air India) at Mahayogi Gorakshnath Airport Gorakhpur on Sunday.

Other routes to go on aviation map on Sunday also included Prayagraj-Bhopal (Indigo), Prayagraj-Bhubaneswar (Indigo), Agra-Bhopal (Indigo) and Agra-Bengaluru (Indigo) while flights on Agra-Mumbai (Indigo) and Agra-Ahmedabad (Indigo) routes will commence on Monday.

The Chief Minister and Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation also laid the foundation stone for the expansion of the civil airport terminal building in Gorakhpur.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that in the last four years, there had been a rapid expansion of aviation sector in the state.

"UP is going to be the first state in the country to offer international flight services from five airports. Two are already functional even as and three will soon be commissioned," he said.

The Chief Minister said that the state government will soon start air services from Lalitpur, Jhansi, Sonbhadra, Shravasti, Aligarh and Moradabad.

Referring to major steps towards transport infrastructure, he said that the work of Meerut to Delhi Rapid Rail was on the fast track and metro in Gorakhpur was also underway while Varanasi and Prayagraj will get the gift of light metro rail.

He also praised the contribution and cooperation of the Ministry of Civil Aviation in increasing air connectivity in the state.

The Chief Minister said that Gorakhpur will now have flights to seven major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Prayagraj and Lucknow and it will continue to expand further.

He announced that the Gorakhpur-Ahmedabad flight will commence operations from April 12 next.

Hardeep Singh Puri, meanwhile, lauded the efforts of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in expansion of air services in the entire Uttar Pradesh including Gorakhpur. He also praised Uttar Pradesh for being the first state to have its own civil aviation policy.

Puri also took the opportunity to appreciate the ODOP scheme of the state government and said that Yogi Adityanath had made it a successful model of self-reliance and employment.

The airline has deployed a 70-seater aircraft to connect these cities.

Alliance Air commences daily Gorakhpur-Lucknow services

National carrier Air India's wholly-owned subsidiary Alliance Air on Sunday commenced daily direct flights from Gorakhpur to Lucknow and back.

The airline has deployed a 70-seater aircraft to connect these cities.

"The airline is already connecting Gorakhpur and Delhi with daily flights," the airline said in a statement.

"This new flight to & from Lucknow will make Gorakhpur connected to yet another Tier 2 destination with multiple options for further connectivity."

According to the airline, Gorakhpur-Lucknow-Gorakhpur service has been commenced under the regional connectivity UDAN scheme.

"Aerial connectivity with the city of Nawabs will make travelling between the two cities of Uttar Pradesh seamless and agile with just one hour of travel."

IANS