Alliance Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India recently flagged-off its first flight operations between Guwahati to Dimapur to Imphal, making it the 236 route under the Regional Connectivity Scheme – UdeDeshKaAamNagrik, RCS-UDAN, under the Government of India. The inaugural event was graced by N.Biren Singh, Chief Minister of Manipur; Losii Dikho, Minister, PHED, Govt. of Manipur, Sapam Ranjan Singh, Chairman, Tourism Corporation of Manipur and other dignitaries from Air India and Air Alliance.
This marks another step by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to establish a strong air network in North East India. Till now, for a mere distance of 200 km, people had to travel for 7-hour by bus from Dimapur in Nagaland to reach Imphal in Manipur. With the establishment of this route, people can now travel to Imphal in 50 minutes by air from Dimapur and access the air connectivity to other parts of the country as well from Guwahati. This flight marks the inception of the first-ever alternative option of connectivity to Imphal, as until now, Imphal is yet to be connected with India’s Railway Network.
Alliance Air will operate thrice-weekly flights; every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday on this route. It currently connects 57 destinations, with the addition of Dimapur and Imphal there will be 59 stations in Alliance Air ambit. The airline will deploy its 70 seater aircraft on this sector.
Alliance Air continues to focus on new routes to connect regional destinations. The airline has been awarded 12 new routes under UDAN-3.1, which are being launched progressively in the coming year bringing new destinations on India’s air map.