Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 10, 2015 : The much-awaited ‘international’ flight took off amidst drizzle from the Biju Patnaik International Airport here on Friday.

Union Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram flagged off Flight AI-078 which left for New Delhi at 14.30 hours carrying 154 passengers of whom 37 were overseas passengers to Dubai, Tokyo, Singapore, London, Abu Dhabi, New York and New Jersey.

The overseas passengers would board the flight to Dubai for their respective destination after their arrival in New Delhi.

Among others, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan, officials of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) including Director, Eastern Range, Satyasudha Bhaduri, Director of Biju Patnaik International Airport, Sharad Kumar and senior officials of the Odisha government were present on the occasion.

However, chief minister Naveen Patnaik skipped the function apparently in protest against the Centre’s refusal for proper international flights from the airport which got international status back in October 2013, sources said.

Sharad Kumar made it clear that the overseas passengers boarding this flight would not have to undergo checking of their customs and immigration in New Delhi. “We have been making efforts to provide all possible facilities to the passengers. Those, who are willing to fly as overseas passengers, need not undergo checking of their customs and immigration in New Delhi again as these formalities would be done here from now on,” he remarked.

As per the schedule, the AI-078 international flight would leave Bhubaneswar everyday at 2 PM and arrive in New Delhi from where the overseas passengers would board another flight to Dubai at 8.30 PM. On the next day, the international flight would arrive in New Delhi at 4.50 AM from where it would leave for Bhubaneswar as AI-077 at 7.05 AM and arrive in the state capital at 9 AM.