SpiceJet has withdrawn all its 5 services from Belagavi(IXG) from May 14 and diverted it to Hubballi as it was allotted to the operator under RCS UDAN scheme. But now time has come for citizens of Belagavi to Rise and along with the #SaveIXG Social media campaign which gaining ground day after day.
Amidst the May heat which has become more blistering with the election campaigning, the Save Belagavi Airport team is working behind the scenes to #SaveIXG.
Yes we are just almost a week away from May 13, which will be the last day as of now which will see 5 flights a day, from May 14 only one flight to Bengaluru will land and takeoff that too only six days week (no flight on Tuesday).
The growing city which has so many feathers to its cap, but lack of political will and push has brought us at this stage.
But have heard anything from the contesting candidates on this Issue? We haven’t heard for sure. The other day a group of BJP members did meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and spoke to him about inclusion of Belagavi under the UDAN scheme.
Emails, Letters, Faxes all have been sent to all the high officers who could influence this, but as of now we haven’t heard anything positive. Many say some good announcement could be made after the elections.
The SaveIXG team which includes an array of people from various backgrounds from frequent fliers, industrialists, Bankers, Social workers you name them and one is there on the group trying his best to somehow get the word about IXG noticed and how lesser flights could impact the overall growth and image of the city.
Belagavi being regional headquarters of North west Karnataka, can the Regional commissioner also help in SavingIXG ? Most importantly the elected representatives must make noise about this and get the higher authorities hear it as well. Just hitting a drum in your house and hearing to it is useless, get the drum outside hit it hard and let drum beats reach the audible levels to reach the concern in New Delhi.
The Battle has just began and it will take a lot of efforts for us to win over this.
Adverse impacts of NO flights:
Foreign delegations which now have an option to come to IXG from Various destinations, now would be confined to only one.
The Aerospace industry with AEQUS and other players who have earned a niche for themselves will face difficulty in getting clients to their offices.
Educational institutions will face a hard time getting expert speakers as many prefer to save on travel time.
The locals who have been involved at the airport will also suffer a lot as they might not shift to Hubballi as they are locals from nearby villages.
The Taxi drivers, Auto Drivers who ferry passengers from the airport will also face the heat.
Expectations in the short run:
As per our sources IXG could see the Boeing or Airbus land soon, but when that cannot be told or quantified, but operators like Indigo are serious on expanding and we could get a Hop over flight from south to the north.
All said and one but even today this issue has not picked up as it had to, many would attribute it to we never travel so why should we bothered. True to some extent, but the larger issue one has to look at is Brand BELAGAVI is getting affected and hence the closure of flights can have a cascading affect if not directly but citizens will have to spend more time and money on travel while our earnest HBX will be happy about its UDAN.
Why Belgaum is not under UDAN scheme? The elected representative of belgaum are answerable. We have second Vidhan Soudha in belgaum, flights are fully loaded whenever you travel from Bangalore to Belgaum. We should get same flights back again and more additional flights to belgaum. This loss would hurt belgaum development again as it has done in past and we would only be watcher looking at progress made by other cities like Hubli.
Time to wake up !!
If political parties and politicians can bring flights,back kudos to them , but they are not the troubled ones ,but we the middle class citizens,it is our requirement therefore all we together fight & get back within 14 the May
Its sad that Spicejet has to stop its operations completely from Belgaum, but end of the day these guys are businessmen , as they were compelled to start its UDAN services from HBX and operating from 2 airports with a distance of 100 kms , may be they did not think its viable, when Spicejet stopped its services from HBX due to that accident, HBX became unnderservered Airport and thus HBX got UDAN, Now Belgaum will become Underservered Airport, may in next Phase Belgaum will be selected .
Yes I agree it may be along way to save IXG. But still we should be fighting for it. All the stake holders of Belgaum should come together. Hope our Honorable Prime Minister will do some thing. We need to remind him again & again on his twitter. Where there is a will there is a way.
Upto year 2013 Belgaum was in the Western Region Regional Head Quarter of Airports Authority of India & the project was sanctioned during that time but there after Belgaum was shifted to Southern Region , Chennai. All the problems had happened thereafter as no honest & hard working officer may work at Belgaum Airport now. The Example is Madam R.A.Bharsaiya Airport Director who completed the Building Project in time but just before Inauguration of New Building she was removed from Belgaum & a new Airport Director who only wants publicity & having no basic knowledge of Airport Operations & having lack in Adminstration could not pursue the matter of RCS (UDAN ) at Ministry level .
Surprised to note that Kolhapur ( WR) , Solapur ( WR) are under RCS but Belgaum is not. The prime requirement is to fetch back out of Southern Region & replacement of idle Airport Director of Belgaum.
Hubli airport will be overflowing with flights by June end. In addition to Alliance Air,Air India and Spice Jet ( shifted from Belgavi ) Indi Go has introduced new destinations. IXB continues to be dry and neglected.