Bhubaneswar: Good news for flyers! The Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) in Odisha capital announced direct flight from Bhubaneswar to Ahmedabad from September 3.

IndiGo airline will also start its operations between Bhubaneswar and Ahmedabad. According to official sources, The direct flight will depart from Bhubaneswar at 11.50 AM and reach Ahmedabad at 2.10 PM. The return flight will leave from Ahmedabad at 8. 55 AM and reach Bhubaneswar at 11. 20 AM.

The direct flights from Bhubaneswar-Ahmedabad will be available thrice in a week – Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“IndiGo airline will begin its operations between Bhubaneswar and Ahmedabad within few days. We have also written to IndiGo and Air Asia for starting operations between Bhubaneswar and Pune on the basis of demand on the route,” said BPIA Director Suresh Chandra Hota.

He further said that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has released its winter schedule plan. The total number of daily flights operation at BPIA will increase to 68 from 42 at present under the plan.

Besides, flight operations from Bhubaneswar to Raipur, Rourkela and Jharsuguda will also start in the winter session under the Udan regional connectivity scheme of the central government, Hota added.

At present, there are direct flights from Bhubaneswar to Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam and Chennai are available.

The Bhubaneswar airport has already made its mark as one of busiest airports in the country. Ministry of Civil Aviation sources said the BPIA has registered a growth of 39.4 per cent during 2017-18 fiscal as compared to the last year in terms of total passengers handled.