Kol to get direct Prayagraj flights for Maha Kumbh
Times of India | 13 December 2024
Kolkata: The city will get direct air connectivity to Prayagraj, formerly Allahabad, ahead of the Maha Kumbh Mela scheduled from Jan 13 to Feb 26. This is the first time that devotees and visitors will be able to fly in directly to the Maha Kumbh.
The Kumbh, held once every six years, and the Maha Kumbh, held once every 12 years, are the world's largest public gatherings and collective acts of faith. The congregation includes ascetics, saints, sadhus, sadhvis, kalpvasis, and pilgrims from all walks of life.
Alliance Air, which operates ATR 72 aircraft, will connect Kolkata with Prayagraj with flights six days a week from Jan 10, 2025. "We will operate flights on all days except Monday. All the flights will be evening operations," an airline official said.
Union civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu on Saturday said that flight landings at night will begin at the Prayagraj airport before the start of Maha Kumbh 2025. He said flights will be able to land even in low visibility conditions, for which, CAT-II landing system has been installed.
Apart from Kolkata, Alliance Air also connects Prayagraj to Delhi, Jaipur, Jabalpur, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Dehradun, and Chandigarh.
IndiGo also operates flights from Prayagraj to Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Lucknow, and Hyderabad. Akasa Air operates a flight to Mumbai while IndiGo plans to start direct flight services to Indore, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata.
Alliance operated flights to Kolkata and Dehradun last year, while IndiGo operated flights to Indore but later discontinued them.
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