Ghaziabad: Flight services at the Hindon civil terminal remain reduced months after winter disruptions forced airlines to scale down operations, with several suspended routes yet to be restored.In Jan, daily flight movements from the terminal were cut from 20 to 12 due to cold-weather conditions affecting schedules. While airlines had indicated that operations would resume after the summer rescheduling, the suspended routes have not returned so far.Air India Express and IndiGo, two major airlines operating from the terminal, had halted flights to several cities from the terminal during the winter.According to terminal director Chilka Mahesh, Air India Express is currently operating only on the Mumbai and Bengaluru routes. Until Dec last year, the airline also ran services to Kolkata, Goa, Chennai, Patna and Bhubaneswar.IndiGo, which had earlier suspended operations on three routes, including Indore, Kolkata and one of its Mumbai flights, is currently running services to seven cities, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Varanasi and Patna.There has been no official statement from Air India Express explaining the continued suspension of several routes. However, sources in the Airports Authority of India said the airline is currently refurbishing at least 18 aircraft, which may have led to reduced operations from Hindon.Regional carriers continue to maintain limited services. Star Air operates flights to Nanded, Adampur and Kishangarh, while FlyBig Airlines stopped operating its Bathinda and Ludhiana routes last year.When the terminal opened in 2019 under the govt’s regional connectivity programme, it handled around 8,000 passengers annually. Footfall later rose to nearly 80,000 a year after AI Express and IndiGo expanded their services. But repeated winter disruptions and flight cancellations have slowed that momentum for the terminal being promoted as the third airport serving the NCR alongside IGI and the upcoming Noida airport.
