Pune airport to close for 2 weeks

Flight operations to Pune will be affected with the airport being closed for re-carpeting for a two-week period beginning February 12 next year.

The low-cost airline, SpiceJet and the full service airline, Kingfisher have both announced suspension of flights during the two-week period.

The airport closure is likely to lead to a revenue loss of close to Rs 4 crore for SpiceJet alone. "During the two-week period, the four daily flights being operated from Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad to Pune would be cancelled," the Chief Executive Officer, SpiceJet, Mr Siddhanta Sharma, said. Officials indicated that the closure was likely to affect around 1,200 SpiceJet passengers a day.

While Indian, which operates a daily flight from Delhi, Goa and Bangalore and a two times a week flight from Hyderabad, has not yet taken a decision on cancelling flights, it also expects to see a drop in revenues if the airport is closed.

Travel industry officials, however, feel that the airport closure has been timed so as to ensure that the impact is minimal. "February is generally the lean season in the domestic tourism industry for a variety of reasons including the fact that examinations in school and colleges begin the following month," sources said.