Bhubaneswar: National carrier Air India will start daily direct flight services from Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) in Bhubaneswar to Ranchi from December 7.

The Air India has confirmed it through a tweet, saying Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha will inaugurate the service.

#FlyAI : #airindia #allianceair is commencing daily flts from Ranchi to Raipur,Bhubaneswar & Kolkata effective 7th Dec. Honoured to welcome @jayantsinha Hon'ble MoS to flag off the inaugural flt.These flts will give seamless connectivity to major domestic and int'l destinations. pic.twitter.com/9tu5TmqtdY

— Air India (@airindiain) December 3, 2018

The flight will leave Bhubaneswar at 2 pm and reach Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi at 3:15 pm. On the return journey, the flight will leave Ranchi at 7:50 am and reach Bhubaneswar at 8:50 am, the airline informed.

The ticket prices for the Bhubaneswar-Ranchi flight start at Rs 1610.

This apart, the airline will launch direct flights to Kolkata and Raipur from Ranchi.

Worth mentioning here that the Central government has decided to expand the Biju Patnaik International Airport at an investment of Rs 930 crore to handle the increased air passengers.

A new terminal (T3) will be constructed at the airport, which is recording around 30 per cent growth in footfall of passengers.

“We have committed that we will be expanding the capacity of Bhubaneswar airport from 3.5 million passengers per annum to 11.5 million per annum. For this, a new terminal building will be constructed to handle 8 million passengers per annum,” Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey had told reporters on Monday here.