Article Posted on : - Oct 13, 2008

MUMBAI (PTI): The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has given approval for commencement of commercial flights from Mumbai to Nashik. The service to be operated by Kingfisher Airlines is expected to start by the end of this month, a top HAL official said.

“We have given approval to operate the flight from Ojhar airport near Nashik and the first flight may take off around October 25,” HAL Managing Director Prakash V Deshmukh said.

The aircraft to be operated would be an ATR-42 type capable of carrying around 40 passengers, Deshmukh said. He said that he was holding talks with a senior Kingfisher official on Monday for holding further consultations with DGCA in Delhi. The Ojhar airport is restricted for Indian Air Force (IAF) activity and is occasionally used for VIP flights.

“We are also following up with Kingfisher to divert their recently introduced Mumbai-Nanded-Latur flight via Nashik so that more passengers could be accommodated,” Deshmukh said. The Mumbai-Nashik flight would be around 45 minutes, Deshmukh, who recently took charge as MD of HALs MiG Complex (Nashik and Koraput divisions), said.

“HAL is building new parking lots for aircraft and would charge users as per DGCA rates,” Deshmukh added.