ZOOM Airways reluctant to operate in Arunachal despite requisite completion of infrastructure in Tezu Airport.
Tezu
Giving thrust to the dream of turning Tezu in the fly map of India is in sordid state of affairs. Tezu Airport – the only civilian airport in Arunachal has been set several deadlines on operation of the airport but unfortunately failed.
On 20th May 2016 the then Chief Minister late Kalikho Pul was assured operational of the airport by June 2016. Again it was set on 2017 March and then to March 2018. However fresh finalization was made on November 2018 regrettably December is heading for completion but the flying high dream remained in hopeless state.
Under the active initiative of the Lohit district administration, most of the pending codal formalities have been completed – including the clearance of approach and transfer funnel, Pruning of trees and bushes in the vicinity and other unauthorized activities to facilitate smooth landing of flights is cleared, The Airport is equipped with Night – Landing Facility, new air traffic control (ATC), technical block, fire station (Cat-IV), Terminal building and associated facilities are also been planned at the Tezu airport.
When confirm over the landing of ZOOM Airways, Airport Authority of India (AAI) Tezu informed that they have made requisite infrastructure ready but the ZOOM Airways reluctant to operate citing loss in business and speculating in-availability of required passengers.
The authority suggested the state government to pursue the ZOOM Airways for the early operation. “After one year completion of ZOOM next year Trujet Airways bid to operate”, informs the AAI.
Meanwhile, Zoom Air had bid for the Northeast routes and TEZU Airport in the second phase of UDAN. The UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme has a provision that subsidizes 50 per cent of the seats on a flight. The fare for these seats will be Rs 3,100 one-way to Arunachal Pradesh from Calcutta, airline officials said.
