For just Rs.150 as base airfare one can take a 50-minute flight from Lilabari to Tezpur in Assam. The flights are operated by Alliance Air. Not just this route, there are many more such flights where the base ticket price is less than Rs.1,000. In fact there are at least 22 routes where the base airfares are less than Rs.1,000 per person. Broadly, the duration of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) flights on these routes are around 50 minutes. A majority of the routes, where the base airfares range between Rs.150 and Rs.199 per person, are in the North East.

Regional airline FlyBig starts flight service at base fare of less than Rs.100
Regional airline FlyBig has launched inter-state flight service in Uttar Pradesh at a fare of Rs.99, excluding taxes and charges. The special flight service is being offered under the government’s viability gap funding-enabled UDAN scheme and 1,000 seats will be for sale. Flight service under the offer named ‘Udaan Har Kisi Ke Sapnon Ko Pankh De’ will be overall priced at about Rs.354, including GST and government fee. This (campaign) is open for the next three months and on a first-come first-serve basis. The special offer, beginning with the Aligarh-Lucknow route, will soon be extended to other destinations in Uttar Pradesh. The airline will be reserving two seats per flight for all routes in Uttar Pradesh. The operations are being undertaken by the airline’s 19-seater DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft. The airline aims to operate up to 30 departures per day.
Contact: FlyBig
Website: www.flybig.in

Emergency landing facility: IAF starts pan-India operations
As part of the ongoing exercise Gagan Shakti-24, Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft operated from the Emergency Landing Facility (ELF) in Kashmir valley. The ministry said that a large number of troops were airlifted and subsequently air landed utilising Chinook, Mi-17 V5 and ALH Mk-III helicopters by night. Emergency Landing Facility operations provide an opportunity for IAF aircraft to undertake operations from such restricted landing surfaces while also being able to undertake humanitarian assistance in disaster relief operations during times of natural calamities. The capability to operate by night on these stretches of highways will enhance operational capabilities of armed forces.

Lucknow airport's T3 terminal turns operational
Chaudhary Charan Singh International (CCSI) Airport began operations from the new integrated Terminal 3 (T3). On the first day of operations,T3 managed eight domestic flights operated by Akasa Air. Built at a cost of Rs.24 billion, T3 can manage 8 million passengers per year currently and at the end of phase two the capacity will go up to 13 million passengers per year. T3 has several sustainability features and adequate deployment of recyclable materials like rainwater harvesting wells, sewage treatment plant and solar power, among others.

It will be a multi-modal travel hub with metro connectivity, intercity electric bus service and app-based taxi services.

Manohar Airport rolls out biometric DigiYatra system
Manohar International Airport has rolled out the biometric-enabled DigiYatra system for air travellers in Goa. The system uses facial recognition for the boarding process, eliminating the need for physical documents like ID proof, which were checked manually by the security personnel. This makes the boarding process significantly faster and seamless as each passenger needs less than 3 seconds at every touch point. Three Digi Yatra touch points have been created at Manohar International Airport. The first is in the forecourt, the second at the pre-security hold area, and the third at Boarding Gate 10.