Operations At Kolhapur Airport Resume After Six Years With Air Deccan Flight To Mumbai
Operations at the Kolhapur Airport in south-western Maharashtra resumed after a period of six years with Air Deccan launching its maiden flight to the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in the state’s capital Mumbai on Sunday (22 April), reports The Times of India. The 18-seater plane was fully booked with Deccan officials indicating that several flights scheduled for the future had also been booked.
We have started the air service from Kolhapur to Mumbai. We have received a good response as all the seats of the first flight were booked. Booking for flights is now full till April end. Within a few days, the bookings for May will also be full.Officials of Air Deccan
Air Deccan was allotted the Mumbai-Kolhapur slot in the Centre’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – also known as UDAN – last year.
The flight will operate thrice a week –Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday – in each direction.
It currently takes six hours to traverse the 375 km-long journey by road and 12 hours by rail from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai to the Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Terminus in Kolhapur.
Last month, the Government of Maharashtra unanimously passed a resolution in the state legislative assembly to rename the Kolhapur Airport to Chhatrapati Rajaram Maharaj Airport after Rajaram III, the Maharaja of Kolhapur from 1922 to 1940. Rajaram III had inaugurated the Kolhapur Airport in 1939 when flights connected the princely state with the Juhu Aerdrome in Bombay.