Canadian firm moots direct charter flights to Toronto, Vancouver from Chandigarh
Canada-based company Dogwerx International Capital Corporation has proposed to start direct charter flights to Toronto and Vancouver from Chandigarh International Airport. Earlier, FlyPop Airlines had proposed to start direct flights to London from the city, starting October.
Chief executive officer (CEO) of Chandigarh International Airport, Rakesh Ranjan Sahay said, “The Canada-based company has approached us for starting charter flights to the two cities of Canada. We have given them a go-ahead and are now waiting for the final nod. Once the plan takes off, it will come as a huge relief to the Punjabi diaspora in Canada.”
He further said, initially it will be a seasonal flight for nearly three months with 200-seater aircraft, but later, the frequency and flight capacity may be increased depending on the response.
With regards to the flights to London, he said the authorities had a meeting with British High Commission and discussed the possibility of flights to Heathrow airport or Birmingham airport.
Chandigarh Member of Parliament Kirron Kher has been pushing the proposal of international flights to both United Kingdom and Canada.
It has been over six years since Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Chandigarh International Airport on September 11, 2015, but the airport still has only two international flights – to Sharjah and Dubai, which were also stalled multiple times amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The Dubai flight operates seven days a week while the Sharjah flight is twice a week- Tuesday and Friday.
Sanjeev Vashisht, a member of Chandigarh International Airport Advisory Committee, said, “We have been trying for more international flights, even though a case is pending in the Punjab and Haryana high court regarding this. The international airport was built for the promotion of trade, which is possible only through connectivity to multiple parts of the world, along with a wide domestic network,” he said.
An air cargo facility was launched at the airport in November 2021 but its operations are yet to kick off for want of approvals from the Airport of Authority of India.
