Bengal to Bangkok: International flights resume at Bagdogra airport after 2-year hiatus

The Bagdogra airport resumed international service on Monday with a Druk Air plane that connected Bangkok with Paro, Bhutan, after a two-year hiatus. The international flights will run twice weekly.

TN City Desk

Updated Jul 5, 2022, 15:01 IST

Bagdogra Airport | File Photo

Photo : ANI

Kolkata: After two years, the Bagdogra airport started operating internationally again on Monday with a Druk Air aircraft that connected Bangkok with Paro, Bhutan. The overseas flights will operate twice weekly, according to airport officials.

Mondays and Tuesdays will be the days that the international flights will operate, according to Subramani P, director of the Bagdogra airport. He said, "The international flight will operate from Paro to Bangkok, via Bagdogra, on Monday and return from Bangkok to Paro, via Bagdogra, on Tuesday. On the first day only four passengers arrived from Paro to Bagdogra and five departing to Bangkok from Bagdogra," he said.

"At present, 28 flights operate a day and June recorded 8,000 flyer count. We have crossed the pre-Covid figure with fewer flights. Also, the number of hours is also fewer. Pre-pandemic hours used to be from 7 am to 8 pm and now, it's 8 am to 5 pm," he added.

After the Air Force finished the runway construction, Subramani stated that Bagdogra airport had been seeing an increase in passengers, and that number was projected to rise even further with more frequent flights.

As a result of heavy rain and low visibility in north Bengal earlier this week, planes between Kolkata and Bagdogra had trouble landing and taking off, resulting in seven cancellations and 22 delayed departures and arrivals.

Flyers were spotted lounging on the stairway and trolleys at Bagdogra Terminal after the allocated seating spaces ran out of room, which made the airport unusually packed.

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