Guwahati's LGBI airport struggles to expand, hosts only 2 international airlines

Guwahati, Feb 6: Though Borjhar airport was declared an international airport and renamed Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (LGBI) more than two decades back, the airport is yet to turn into a major international airport. Only two international airline operators are operating from the airport.

The Borjhar airport started operations in 1958 and it formally became an international airport and was renamed LGBI Airport in 2000. The first international flight from the airport was operated by Air India to Bangkok in 2002 but later it was cancelled.

The reason given was that there were not enough passengers. But it is a fact that there were frequent cancellations and people preferred to travel to Kolkata to fly out to Bangkok.

Another Guwahati-Dhaka flight was introduced but later cancelled because of the reasons best known to the authorities concerned. Now Thai Air Asia Airlines is operating a Guwahati-Bangkok flight four times a week.

Thai Air sources said that the flight is getting good response from passengers and people also fly out to different destinations in SE Asia and Australia after reaching Bangkok.

When asked why people still travel to Kolkata to fly out to Bangkok, sources said, "It is people's choice and we cannot comment on that. Maybe some people are not aware of the direct flight."

Druk Air is also operating connecting flights from Paro to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur via Guwahati.

But these are the only two international flight operators operating flights from the LGBI Airport. Commenting on the issue, aviation industry sources told The Assam Tribune that initiatives from the State and Central Governments are also required to in-crease international flight operations from Guwahati.

Last year, a proposal was mooted for a visit of a team from Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh to Singapore and other major international destinations to promote tourism in the region. But that finally did not materialize.

The LGBI Airport was leased out to the Adani Group in 2019 and it was expected that the number of international flights would increase. But it did not materialize. Aviation sources said that the space rent of the airfield needs to be reduced to attract more international tour operators.

Sources said that the space rent in LGBI Airport should not be at par with the rich airports of the country. Moreover, during winter, visibility sometimes becomes a problem at the LGBI Airport. At present, the visibility required to land planes in the air-port is around 1,300 meters and it needs to be reduced to around 500 meters.

The cargo flight operation has also not gone up to the expected level and it is hoped that things will improve after the new terminal building is completed and the old terminal is converted to cater to cargo operations. But the Government should have a clear-cut policy and decide what to be exported and to which country, sources added.

By R Dutta Choudhury