Ministry Approves Five Flights Per Week, LG Hails Move
Srinagar- After facing repeated disruptions over bilateral rights, Go First on Friday received approval from Ministry of Civil Aviation to operate five Srinagar-Sharjah flights per week on a regular basis.
Director, Airports Authority of India, Srinagar, Kuldeep Singh told Kashmir Observer that the 5 flights will be operated from Srinagar-Sharjah per week now.
“The operation was stopped in March, now it has been resumed,” Singh said.
According to a communiqué by the Ministry of Civil Aviation government of India, it has allocated M/s Go Air India Ltd the traffic rights to operate on Srinagar-Sharjah route- reg.
Go First’s Srinagar-Sharjah flight was inaugurated by Home Minister Amit Shah on October 23 last year, connecting Jammu and Kashmir with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after around 11 years. However, six months after the inauguration, Go First stopped operating the flight from March 27 in absence of requisite bilateral rights.
The traders as well as the travellers were continuously demanding resumption of the Srinagar-Sharjah direct flight which was benefiting thousands of Kashmiris working or studying in the UAE.
An official said, Airlines need bilateral rights — which are granted under air services agreement signed between the two countries — to operate scheduled international passenger flights.
The Airlines used to operate the Srinagar-Sharjah flight under air bubble arrangement that was in place till March 26, 2022. However the arrangements were cancelled when India resumed scheduled international passenger flights on March 27, 2022.
According to PTI, Go First Spokesperson said that the airline has got the bilateral rights to operate five flights per week on Srinagar-Sharjah-Srinagar route.
“We will restart flights on this route in the next few days. However, the frequency is yet to be decided,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approving extension of Srinagar-Sharjah flights.
He also observed that regular International flights between Srinagar & Sharjah will help in boosting trade and tourism.
According to an official spokesperson, the LG further noted that the UT administration, Ministry of Civil Aviation under Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister for Civil Aviation is taking necessary steps on priority to strengthen air connectivity to cater to the growing tourism and industry sectors.
He said that the direct air link between the Valley and the UAE revived after 11 years in October last year has immense potential to strengthen J&K’s ties with the Gulf region, creating market linkages and enabling direct export of J&K’s Agriculture, Horticulture & Handicraft products.
“The UT administration has taken several steps to ensure that air traffic to the Union Territory- Jammu, Srinagar airports would grow unhindered in the future. Jammu airport recently achieved a milestone by recording the highest ever footfall at 1.54 lakh passengers in the month of March on 1346 flights,” the spokesperson said.
Similarly, he said, over 5,85,653 tourists have visited the Kashmir valley between January to 27th April this year, which is 5 times more than the last year’s figure of 1.26 lakh during the same period.
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