A promising summer schedule for Barak Valley, writes Dipalay Dey

By: Dipalay Dey

This summer, the people of Silchar will enjoy a wide range of connectivity to rest of the cities with a promising summer schedule offered by the three airlines operating from Silchar Airport. Officially the schedule started from March 29 and will last till the last week of October but is not yet active due to the current menace of COVID19 for which the entire aviation industry of the country came to a halt.

The Silchar Airport being the lone serving in the entire Barak Valley covers not just Cachar district of Assam but includes Dima Hasao District, Hailakandi District and Karimganj District into its umbrella. Few other cities and villages from the nearby states like Manipur’s Jiribum, a number of villages from Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills, Mizoram’s Vairengte and Kolasib and Tripura’s Dharmanagar are also fully dependent on Silchar Airport. Hence, any good news for Silchar Airport is a piece of good news for all the above-listed cities, villages and districts.

This summer, Silchar Airport will be connected to two important airports in the country which are Kempegowda International Airport in Karnataka and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Maharashtra apart from the existing connectivity to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in West Bengal and Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Brahmaputra Valley of Assam, taking the total count of connection to five important cities. Previously, we were limited to only Kolkata and Guwahati in terms of mass connection but from past two years, things changed drastically and now we have three more important cities in the count.

Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune are few of the important cities in the country where a bulk number of people from Barak Valley especially sylhetis resides. Some are there to earn their livelihood and some are settled there permanently. Although in today’s wide network of aviation, travelling to any part of the country and the world is absolutely possible but there is a difference between changing a flight, a one-stop flight and a direct flight.

People around the globe prefer a direct connection or a one-stop connection hence it becomes a complete package for the people of Silchar to get this brand new schedule. All three airlines that is Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet connect us to Kolkata which is undoubtedly the biggest hub for the entire East and North East zone and also IndiGo and SpiceJet connects us to Guwahati which is considered as the gateway for Northeast and the most important hub for the entire Northeastern region. However, a full connection with the rest of the country was a long pending demand.

In 2018, Jet Airways and SpiceJet brought relief by introducing the New Delhi connectivity but the withdrawal of Jet Airways from Silchar in February 2019 had left a big void and that void was not just limited to Silchar but the entire aviation sector of India. Again on September 2019, Silchar got another boost through the launching of IndiGo and its introduction to the blooming network.

IndiGo will provide a one-stop flight between Silchar and Mumbai through Guwahati and Silchar and Bengaluru through Kolkata while SpiceJet will stick to its current schedule of connecting Silchar with New Delhi through Guwahati and Silchar to Kolkata, Air India on its part will restrict itself to only Silchar to Kolkata connectivity. With the highest number of fleet in the country, IndiGo is expanding its PAN India network and its South East Asian presence rapidly whereas SpiceJet is following a gradual climb and is focusing primarily on improving its aircraft utilization and capacity fulfillment along with on-time performances. There is a huge expectation on these two private players and they are constantly proceeding towards giving Silchar a better connection.

How this new connection benefits us:

The best opportunity is no doubt the ease of communication between these big cities apart from giving us the opportunity to save time and to fly easy. These connections will open all the gates for business opportunities for Barak Valley and its neighbouring cities. Every connection brings in something for the destination city and in this way Silchar’s wide-angle connection with Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru will open barriers for all especially for students from the valley who are studying in various institutes at different corners of the country or the globe. This new connection will also provide a source for increasing the number of footfalls in the valley and will push for the increase of tourism.

A few years back there was a time when people had to keep two days in hand for catching a flight to Silchar due to the availability of limited options and selective time schedules of the operating airlines but now it became just a matter of a few hours to fly from one’s source city to Silchar and vice versa.

Both IndiGo and SpiceJet operates a bulk amount of flights from Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi to various domestic and International destinations and for which linkage between Silchar and these cities will help the people of Barak Valley to find a better solution and an option to reach to any part of the country without any hassle.

On a note to conclude it is relevant to say that the current time is definitely crucial with all the havoc created by COVID19 but once this goes off by the end of April or May then the global aviation sector will gradually take better shape and will continue its growth and climb. Similarly, Silchar will also see all these new flights and will continue to proceed on its way to becoming one of the busiest airports in Assam and the entire Northeast of India.

The author of this article, Dipalay Dey is currently working as a manager for special projects in Codotte Advisory Limited in New Delhi.