Additional Chief Secretary (Transport\/Textiles, Commerce & Industry) and PCCF & HoFF, Shri Anurag Bajpai, held a high-level meeting on Tuesday with officials from the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Air India Express, IndiGo, and Alliance Air to address the steep hike in airfares and limited flight operations to and from Imphal. The meeting was also attended by the Director (Transport) and Joint Secretary (Transport).<\/p>\n
During the discussion, the ACS highlighted that airfares for the Imphal sector remain disproportionately high compared to similar routes in other Northeastern States, despite comparable distances. Officials expressed concern that airlines may be offsetting losses from less-profitable routes by inflating fares on high-demand sectors like Imphal, thereby burdening the travelling public.<\/p>\n
With road connectivity frequently disrupted and rail connectivity still unavailable, air travel serves as Manipur\u2019s only dependable mode of transport. However, the airfare for short routes such as Imphal\u2013Guwahati\u2014normally a 45-minute flight\u2014has reportedly soared from \u20b92,000\u2013\u20b93,000 to as much as \u20b910,000\u2013\u20b915,000 in recent weeks. Comparative studies indicate that passengers from Imphal are paying up to seven times more than those flying similar distances from other Northeastern cities.<\/p>\n
Acknowledging the seriousness of the issue, the Hon\u2019ble Governor of Manipur has already written to the Union Minister of Civil Aviation, urging immediate intervention to rationalize airfares and enhance flight operations. The letter underscores the social and economic strain caused by the steep airfare structure and calls for remedial measures through coordination with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and airline operators.<\/p>\n
Shri Bajpai stressed the need for greater transparency in airfare determination and a coordinated framework between airlines and AAI. He urged airlines to maintain fare structures on par with other Northeastern states and to continue operating summer-level flight frequencies during the winter season. He also requested Alliance Air to restore suspended regional routes\u2014Imphal\u2013Silchar, Imphal\u2013Aizawl, and Imphal\u2013Dibrugarh\u2014and encouraged Air India Express and IndiGo to explore starting passenger and cargo services between Imphal and Bangkok, given the strong demand.<\/p>\n
Reiterating the Government\u2019s commitment to preserving and enhancing both physical and economic connectivity for its citizens, the Additional Chief Secretary called upon national aviation authorities, airlines, and other stakeholders to adopt a socially equitable approach in airfare pricing, especially for regions like Manipur with limited transport alternatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Additional Chief Secretary (Transport\/Textiles, Commerce & Industry) and PCCF & HoFF, Shri Anurag Bajpai, held a high-level meeting on Tuesday with officials from the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Air … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1],"tags":[686,658,687,682,688,689],"class_list":["post-5147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inn","category-uncategorized","tag-additional-chief-secretary","tag-airfares","tag-airports-authority-of-india-aai","tag-anurag-bajpai","tag-directorate-general-of-civil-aviation-dgca","tag-northeastern-states","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8483,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147\/revisions\/8483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}