Airport to remain shut on 5 Sundays from April 10

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 23

The Chandigarh international airport will remain closed on five consecutive Sundays with effect from April 10 for runway repairs. The airport authorities said all flights to and from Chandigarh will stand cancelled on these days.

The move has come as a shocker for passengers as well as travel ticketing firms, restaurants at the airport and parking and taxi operators, who will have to suffer a revenue loss. “All of us will pay rent on these days but won’t earn anything. I see a 15 per cent loss of revenue in my business because of the move. This is unfair to us,” said Vijay Raina, head, Carzonrent, a taxi service at the airport.

“We are tired of the way the authorities are running the airport here. We will not take part in the tendering process next time,” said another worried contractor after the news of the airport closure broke out.

Several passengers, who had booked tickets on these days, will face inconvenience. “All plans of people who had booked tickets for these days will go awry. Some had connecting flights for domestic or international travel. While some had planned travel to attend important meetings lined up for Mondays. All of them will be hit hard by the move. They will either have to take a full refund or may be adjusted in flights available the next day,” said Vaneet Sharma, a local tour and travel operator.

Sunil Dutt, Chief Executive Officer of the airport, said, “The airport will remain closed on five consecutive Sundays from April 10 due to runway repairs. This decision has been taken by the Airports Authority of India.”

Flights from city  

Jet Airways, GoAir, SpiceJet, Air India, IndiGo and AirAsia run flights from the airport. A total of 20 direct flights each depart and arrive in the city daily. All flights to and from Chandigarh have been ordered to be cancelled on April 10, 17 and 24, and May 1 and 8.