Prayagraj: For the first time in over six years, Prayagraj Airport on Saturday saw no flight operations throughout the day, reflecting the steady decline in air connectivity from Sangam city.The last time the airport witnessed a complete suspension of flight operations was during the Covid-19 lockdown, when services remained halted from March 25 to May 24, 2020. Since commercial operations resumed on May 24, 2020, flights operated every day.The disruption came amid continued cuts in flight frequencies by airlines, reducing operations at the airport to just six days a week. The biggest change was made by Akasa Air, whose Mumbai-Prayagraj service was the only daily flight operating from the airport. The airline reduced the service from seven flights a week to just one, resulting in no scheduled flight operations on Saturday.Other airlines have also reduced their services. IndiGo cut the frequency of its Prayagraj-Mumbai flight from six weekly services to four. The shrinking schedule also affected connectivity on other days. Under the revised timetable, Wednesdays will now see only a single flight to Delhi operating from Prayagraj, while services to all other destinations will remain unavailable on that day.The continued reduction in flights drew criticism from local stakeholders.Former member of the Prayagraj airport advisory committee, Dhananjay Singh, questioned the rationale behind spending crores of rupees on expanding the airport if airline services continued to be withdrawn one after another.Phulpur MP, Praveen Patel, said he would meet the Union civil aviation minister in New Delhi and raise the issue. He said Prayagraj is one of Uttar Pradesh ‘s most important cities and should have direct air connectivity with major destinations across the country.
