In a bid to boost tourist footfalls, Agra will now be air linked to Goa, Mumbai, Lucknow and Bhopal. As per Kheria airport officials, a few airlines have sought permissions to begin flights soon. Further, Air India is already in the line to start a flight to Goa and although initially, this could be a weekly flight and later, if there is an influx of tourists, the number of flights could be increased. It is also being reported that Zoom Air may also start flights to Lucknow and Bhopal, under the Udan scheme, however, Zoom’s lone flight to Jaipur was suspended last year due to poor response.
An independent approach road & a new terminal building in the pipeline
Permission from the Air Force which controls Agra’s Kheria Airport, is necessary to start a flight. Further, the union civil aviation ministry has chalked out a plan to provide an independent approach road and a new terminal building, to avoid security bottlenecks. The boundary of the new complex is almost complete. As per claims, Agra is visited by seven to eight million tourists from all over the world and a large chunk comprises of foreign tourists.
A senior tourism industry leader, Surendra Sharma, was quoted saying, “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the momentum was halted but now that conditions seem to be returning to normal and with the number of visitors going up, work could be speeded up.”
With the operations of the new flights, footfalls in the cities of Goa, Mumbai, Lucknow, Bhopal and Agra, is all set to surge because travel is ought to become easier with these air connectivity options. Since the majority of these cities experience domestic and international citizens in hordes, this could also help the stakeholders of the tourism industry to recover from the losses incurred due to the outbreak of the pandemic.
