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In a decision that will deal a blow to the state’s tourism industry, the aircraft carrier SpiceJet decided to suspend daily flights to and from the greenfield airport in Sikkim’s Pakyong from 30 October due to “operational constraints”. SpiceJet was the only carrier that used to run the services on this route.
The bad weather and low visibility were the challenges, due to which constraints occurred in the operations on the route, an official from the airline said.
“SpiceJet flights to and from Pakyong airport have been temporarily suspended with effect from October 30, 2022, due to operational constraints owing to the bad weather condition and low visibility at Pakyong.
“Pakyong is a VFR (Visual Flight Rules) airport and does not have instrument landing facilities. The required minimum to operate from this airport is 5,000 feet, which is difficult to achieve on most days of the year, especially during the winter months. To avoid inconvenience to our passengers, flight operations have been temporarily suspended. We will share an update once the services resume,” the spokesperson said.
Notice of this change has been put on reception and the ticket counter of the airport. An official who spoke to the news agency PTI, on the condition of anonymity informed that the airline suffered huge losses during monsoon as flights were canceled due to the bad weather.
In 2018, SpiceJet started daily operations from the table-top airport and currently operates direct flights to Delhi and Kolkata.
The state officials expressed concern about the inconvenience to the local residents, who avail the services of the airline, as and when they are available. The suspensions of flights will also affect the tourism sector in the landlocked state.
“We are hoping that services will resume early next year as the weather is usually favorable around that time of the year,” a tourism department official said.
With inputs from PTI.
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