Kolhapur to Nagpur flight to operatefrom May 15

Kolhapur: A new flight service connecting Kolhapur to Nagpur will start from May 15, running five days a week. Star Airways will provide an aircraft equipped with 12 business class and 64 economy class seats.
Rajya Sabha MP Dhananjay Mahadik made the announcement, stating that the development will boost Kolhapur's industry, trade, and tourism.
The Kolhapur-Nagpur-Kolhapur flight will operate on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It will depart from Nagpur at 10am and arrive in Kolhapur at 11:30am. The return flight will take off from Kolhapur at 12:00pm and reach Nagpur at 1:30pm.
"We are pursuing the expansion of Kolhapur Airport at local and central levels. The runway extension, night landing facilities, modern fire-fighting vehicles, and a new terminal building are part of the accomplished projects. We will get more service providers on board to start the service connecting Kolhapur to other cities," said the MP.
The service provider will run the air service between Kolhapur and Nagpur until October 25 and will continue depending on passenger demand. The travel time between Nagpur and Kolhapur by road is 16 hours, which will be reduced to 90 minutes.
Shantanu Patil, an aviation enthusiast, said, "This is peak tourism time now. Many flock to Vidarbha for jungle safaris, such as Tadoba. Also, further north, tourists can visit Pench and Kanha national parks. Additionally, Nagpur residents can throng to Kolhapur to get Mahalaxmi's darshan and visit many other historical places."
Kolhapur is connected to Mumbai, Tirupati, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru as of now. Around 450 passengers travel from the airport, which witnesses eight flight movements daily. At Kolhapur Airport, for emergency rescue services and fire mitigation, a Mobile Command Post has been brought into the fleet.