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Its Final SpiceJet will not fly from Belagavi March 1 onwards

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On February 12, 2015 we had posted a story No flights from March 1 from Belagavi, and now the same has been reiterated by Spicejet in its press release February 18.

spicejet-belgaum-plane
Photo:Arun

 

As part of the new schedule and in an effort to maximize network efficiencies with its current and planned summer fleet, SpiceJet is also suspending service to six cities, namely Aurangabad, Belgaum, Indore, Lucknow, Surat, and Trivandrum. Service to these cities may resume at a later date as SpiceJet adds back more aircraft to its fleet.”

Hence there would be no take offs from Belagavi (Sambra) airport from March 1 as Spicejet has declared that it would starts its operations from Hubballi from the same date and Belagavi airport would be closed for runway expansion works hopefully.

7 thoughts on “Its Final SpiceJet will not fly from Belagavi March 1 onwards”

  1. Concerns on the runway expansion

    Presently Belgaum airport handles ATR-72 aircraft, the seating capacity of ATR-72 is around 74 passengers. That means the airport is capable of handling 150 passengers at peak (75 passengers alighting & 75 passengers boarding). I guess we donot get to see 74 passengers alighting and another 74 boarding whenever an aircraft lands at Belgaum. I guess the nos. of passengers alighting & boarding is less than 20 each, this means the airport infrastructure is under utilized.
    Now expansion plans are for handling A321 aircrafts, the seating capacity of A-321 is around 200 passengers. That means whenever a flight lands at Belgaum the airport would handle 400 passengers at peak (200 passengers alighting & 200 passengers boarding). Can we pratically get to see these numbers in Belgaum airport consistently on a daily basis? (200 passengers flying everyday consistently from Belgaum and another 200 comming to Belagum by flight everyday). This is quite serious, I guess this may not be possible in the next 10 years also. By expanding the airport and equipping it to handle A-321 aircrafts the airport would be “future ready” or rather “far future ready”. By considering the present load factor at Belgaum the operating charges per passenger would be very high with the improvised airport, can this be sustained on a long term – may be not, apparently this may turn out to be infeasible and may be forced to shut down the services. Whatever services of ATR-72 we have at the moment that also will go away. So folks this is a serious issue.

    But however commoners like us talking and raising concerns about this issue will have no impact on the decision making authorities.

    Reply
    • The present load factor of Belgaum Airport is 70 – 80%. While proposing for the airport expansion, such data is critical and that’s why around 250 – 300 crores is being spent on its renovation and expansion. The suspension of flights by Spice jet is temporary due to its financial re-structuring process. Belgaum Airport will definitely see more air services in the coming days.

      Reply
  2. Yesterday 22nd feb, 2015 I had traveled from Belgaavi to Bengaluru by this spice jet flight. The occupancy rate looks to be more than 90%. A few seats vacant also looks to be some Spice Max or some thing like that. The strength of incoming passengers also looked to be around 80-90%. I feel this flight is running with a good Capacity.

    My suggestion is that if we can decrease the prices through Airport taxes, Toll fees, High taxi fare, Avionic industry can boom up like any thing. Down the lane we should see the flight industry as any other mode of travel. We should come out of thinking that Aircraft is only for rich people.

    Reply
  3. If Spicjet stopped temporarily then fine but it should re operate once expansion done. I had travel last month and it was fuly occupied the seats. comparatively Hubli airport Belgaum airport has to be improved. Hope expansion work will begin soon and in future we can see Boings landing in Belgaum.

    Reply
  4. Hi AAB,

    Am planning to have short trip to Belgaum during the Ganapathy festive season. Checked on Spicejet’s website and it shows that BGM flights have been resumed from Mumbai from the 1st of July 2015. Can someone confirm if this is true please?

    Thanks – Vinay (+61 428 451 712)

    Reply

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