Flight operations under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) began from Cooch Behar Airport on Tuesday, with an IndiaOne Air flight taking off from there, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said in Kolkata.
Flagged off by Union Minister of State for Home Nisith Pramanik, the flight to Kolkata departed at 3:05 pm from Cooch Behar.
Earlier in the day, the flight landed at Cooch Behar Airport at 1:55 pm from NSCBI Airport in Kolkata. Passengers along with the flight crew were welcomed there with flowers.
The new flight operations at Cooch Behar Airport will give a further boost to economic activity in the region by connecting it to different parts of the country, the AAI said in a statement.
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Earlier, the CEO of IndiaOne Air, Arun Kumar Singh, had said that the airline initially has plans to operate around five flights a week and operate daily flights in two months.
The airline currently operates flights between Bhubaneswar and Jeypore, Jeypore and Vizag, Bhubaneswar and Jamshedpur, and between Jamshedpur and Kolkata.
The Cooch Behar airport is located on 174 acres of land. The length of the runway is 1069 metres, while the width is 30 metres.
The terminal building has the capacity to handle 100 passengers at one time - 50 arrival and 50 departure. The airport will also cater to tourists to and from Bhutan.