Soon after completing his Independence day address from the Red Fort in Delhi, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew all the way to Bhavnagar to pay homage to Swaminarayan saint and spiritual guru, Pramukh Swami Maharaj and returned Delhi by evening.

Residents of Surat were no less privileged to have an airline of 'their own' - which took many of the devotees across the Gulf of Cambay to Bhavnagar in less than 30 minutes - a journey otherwise taking 8-10 hours and bringing them back the same day.

Thanks to Gujarat's first regional airline, Ventura Airconnect, operated by Surat-based Diamond barons, which temporarily increased its routine two fleets between Surat and Bhavnagar to 19 fleets for four days starting Sunday, August 14 to Wednesday, August 17 mainly for the Swaminarayan devotees.

Sarangpur, where the mortal remains of the saint were kept for his followers to pay their final respect, is located about 80 kilometres from Bhavnar - prompting a large number of Surat citizens to flock to Bhavnagar.

"We realised the importance of the occasion and also requested the airport authorities in Surat and Bhavnagar to allow more flights to operate. It is with their support, we launched additional flights to Bhavnagar. The response is overwhelming and it further establishes the importance of regional air connectivity in a state like Gujarat," said Ishwar Dholakiya, Managing Director of Diamond Aeronautics - the operator of Ventura Airconnect.

The airline operates one flight every 1.30 hours from Surat to Bhavnagar between 6 am to 9 pm, even as the Surat airport remains closed during day time for the expansion of the runway.

The airline had received Air Operator Permit for non-scheduled flight operations from the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in June this year.

According to Ventura officials, through the additional fleets, so far till August 16, the airline ferried over 200 people from Surat to Bhavnagar on its two 9-seater Cessna Grand Caravan 208Bs aircrafts with one-way fare at ₹3900 per person.

Notably, Ventura Airconnect was awarded Gujarat government's contract to operate intra-state air service between non-connected airports in the State. "Last week, we connected Kandla, which was earlier not connected with air service. Also, in Bhavnagar we were the only operator till recently. We have plans to connect other towns in the State with air service," he added.

A senior official of the airline stated that since start of its non-scheduled operations on June 25th this year, the airline has maintained average seat occupancy of over 60 per cent.

According to officials, the airline currently, does not qualify for the Central subsidy as the renewed aviation policy is still to be made effective. "But we have been offered subsidy by the state government to meet our viability gap. The government would provide subsidy of ₹22,900 per flying hour for 200 hours monthly," said Dholakiya.

Related Topics