After a gap of three years, the air link between Ludhiana and Delhi resumed from the terminal in Sahnewal, on the outskirts of Punjab’s main industrial city, on Saturday. A 70-seater ATR 72-600 aircraft of Alliance Air — a subsidiary of national carrier Air India — landed at Sahnewal at 1.50pm from Delhi with 41 passengers in addition to four crew members. The flight took off again from Sahnewal for Delhi at 4pm with 48 passengers besides the crew.
The flight will operate four days a week — Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The price of 50% of the tickets (35) has been capped at ₹2,079 under the Union government’s ‘Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik’ (UDAN) scheme that is aimed at promoting ‘flights for the common man’. The Hindi word ‘Udaan’ means ‘flight’.
While on Saturday the timings were altered as it was an inaugural run, the regular flight will depart from Terminal 3 of the Delhi airport at 3pm and land at Sahnewal an hour later. For Delhi, it will depart at 4.45 pm.
Sahnewal airport director AN Sharma said, “The response was overwhelming, and we are hopeful of sustaining it. Deccan Air will also start flights in a month. There will be no flight in the morning as of now, keeping in view the visibility factor due to fog.”
The schedule
Flight will operate 4 days a week — Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
To leave Delhi at 3pm, reach Sahenwal an hour later
For Delhi, it will depart at 4.45 pm from the Sahenwal airport
Price of 50% tickets (35) capped at ₹2,079 under Union govt scheme.
