Dedicated airlnes have failed in north-east: North Eastern Council

SHILLONG: The Centre's initiatives in getting land-locked NE states connected by dedicated airlines has "failed" as the service is market-driven and the government now is concentrating on development of air fields first, officials said today.

"Dedicated airlines in the north-east have failed," North Eastern Council Secretary U K Sangma said.

Dedicated flights which have been subsidised to be flown in routes which are considered less profitable have been discontinued recently, the NEC official told reporters.

Alliance Air which was operationalised in the region since 2001 has been discontinued in December last year for its unsatisfactory flight operations, he said.

Alliance Air pockets about Rs 49 crore in a year from the operation in NE, the NEC official said.

"Over the years we found out that the performance of the Alliance Air was not up to the mark. Nagaland government had complained to us that flights from Dimapur were cancelled so many times and (for this) they quoted operational reasons. So we discontinued our association with them," Sangma said.

The Centre's proposed 'intra-NE flights' which is set to replace Alliance Air did not attract big airline operators.

"Big private players in air industry never responded to the tenders called by the NEC thrice," the official said, adding only small players responded.