MCCIA Writes To Ministry Of Civil Aviation Regarding Increasing Pune’s International Connectivity
Manisha Swain
Pune, 22nd July 2022:Recently Sudhir Mehta, the President of Maratha Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), talked to Vistara about increasing the international connectivity of Pune.
Today Mehta along with Prashant Girbane, Director General of MCCIA wrote a letter to Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister for Civil Aviation Government of India regarding the need for enhancing the Direct Air Connectivity from Pune.
The letter read, “We believe that Pune, a major manufacturing, IT and Education hub deserves significantly more direct international air connectivity in addition to some more domestic air connectivity from the present airport.”
MCCIA aproached the Ministry of Civil Aviation with a request to advise the concerned officials as follows:
1. Consider adding two slots per hour (one arrival and one departure) during Prime time of 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (except the time reserved for Air Force sorties). This will greatly facilitate business community and others. Presently there are 8 movements per hour during prime time.
2. Reallocate the slots for international operations from Pune which were taken off during the pandemic.
3. Reassign the slots for direct air connectivity on Pune-Singapore-Pune, Pune-Bangkok-Pune and Pune-Dubai-Pune routes from the airlines which were originally granted these for operations and have not utilised them for considerable period of time due to one reason or the other.
4. In particular urgently allocate the Pune-Singapore-Pune connectivity which deserves top priority since there is no direct air connectivity between Pune and Singapore presently.
5. Consider including Pune Airport while formulating revisions to the bilateral air service agreements on India-UAE and India-Thailand as well as other countries. This will enable Indian carriers to choose Pune Airport for direct air connectivity with certain additional destinations in the months ahead.
The letter added, “May we also take this opportunity to invite you to MCCIA, Pune to interact with the business community of this region. We request you to address us on not just Pune Airport related matters but your broader vision for Civil Aviation in India.”
