Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 4, 2015 : Silk Air will operate flights from Bhubaneswar to Singapore beginning December this year. A delegation from Silk Air visited Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) to check out the facilities last week.

The Silk Air top boss is expected to visit the airport for final assessment in the third week of this month.
The airline has obtained permission from the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and hopes to get the clearance from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) soon. Once the permission is through, Silk Air will submit a flight schedule to the BPIA authorities, sources said.

Silk Air has proposed to operate a 180-seater Airbus A 320 aircraft for the Bhubaneswar-Singapore flight, sources said. There will be 148 seats in the economy class and 42 in the business class while fares can be as low as Rs 10,000-12,000 if tickets are booked well in advance.

The flight would leave Bhubaneswar at 10 or 11 pm and would land in Singapore at 5 or 6 am the next morning after a stopover either at Vishkhapatnam or Chennai. Silk Air authorities are planning to make it a feeder flight for passengers arriving in Bhubaneswar from New Delhi through Air India, Indigo and GoAir after evenings, the sources added.

After Kolkata, Bhubaneswar will become the second hub in eastern India for international air passengers visiting countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia with Singapore as the hub.

Ealrier, Notably, Air Asia has already announced the launch of its Bhubaneswar-Kuala Lumpur service from December 15.

According to BPIA director Sharad Kumar, Silk Air had begun preparations to operate flights from Bhubaneswar to Singapore one year ago.

Kumar said Silk Air authorities have expressed satisfaction over the facilities available here during their inspection of the airport.