Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has released Winter Schedule 2023 for flight operations in India. And there is some bad news for Hubballi Airport.
According to the Winter Schedule 2023, IndiGo has reduced the frequency of Chennai flight to 3 days/week from Daily. And completely stopped Pune flight which used to be 2 times/week.
IndiGo will operate direct flights to Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Bengaluru sector will have 2 flights per day, while others will have 1 flight per day.
DGCA’s Winter Schedule will be effective from 29th October 2023 to 30th March 2024. IndiGo will operate Chennai flight on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday only.
The cancellation of flights and frequency reductions has received widespread backlash on social media. Many users have expressed their disappointment on Twitter.
Nagabhushan (@nagabhushanb) said, “On the first day of winter schedule we have just 4 destinations from Hubballi airport, What a sad state of affairs in an airport that saw 20+ Arrivals/Departures every day”.
“Hubballi Airport deserves better! From 50k to a mere 26k pax/month – this is neglect at its worst. The demand is HUGE, the potential is HIGH! Bring back the Ahmedabad flight that’s been stopped for 2 years” he added.
The only positive takeaway from the Winter Schedule is that IndiGo has decided to upgrade the Hubballi Mumbai flight to an 186-seater Airbus A320 from ATR-72.
Read more: IndiGo upgrades Hubballi Mumbai flight to Airbus.
Also, Star Air has decided not to operate any flights from Hubballi Airport in the Winter Schedule 2023. IndiGo is going to be the lone operator from Hubballi Airport.
Despite all the cancellations and frequency reductions, Hubballi Airport continues to be the third busiest in Karnataka and the busiest in North Karnataka as far as number of passengers is concerned.
Please restart the Kochi flight which was stopped 2 years ago. It was very convenient for us as we could save a lot of time
Jodi