From Hindon airport, daily flights to Varanasi & Patna from May 1

GHAZIABAD: Air India Express is set to launch flight services to Varanasi and Patna from Hindon civil terminal next month. In March, the airline completed its metro circuit from the Hindon terminal, which it has been using as Delhi-NCR's second airport since March 1, with the launch of flights to Chennai.
On May 1, an Airbus A320 aircraft, which has the capacity to accommodate 180 passengers, will depart from Varanasi at 11.05am to reach Hindon at 12.40pm. At 1.35pm, it will fly back to Varanasi. The first flight to Patna will take off at 11.50am to reach Hindon at 1.40pm. It will leave for Patna again at 2.25pm and reach there at 4.10pm.
Officials said bookings for both routes have opened. As of April 14, the basic fare for Patna to Ghaziabad is Rs 5,573 (excluding other charges) and Rs 4,700 for a flight from Ghaziabad to Patna for the first week of May. The fare from Hindon to Varanasi is Rs 3,384 and Rs 3,669 on the return journey during the same period.
While NCR's second international airport in Jewar is expected to open later this year, Hindon civil terminal has seen a growing passenger base. People from Ghaziabad, Noida, East Delhi and nearby Saharanpur and Meerut are increasingly opting to fly from the terminal to save time and travel cost.
Located about 25km from Delhi, the terminal is well-connected via the Hindon Elevated Road and Delhi Metro's Red Line network stations of Shaheed Nagar, Raj Bagh, and Rajendra Nagar Metro and Vaishali station on the Blue Line.
The passenger terminal, an ajunct to the IAF airbase, now has flight services to all the metro cities, with a daily flight each to Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, and two to Bengaluru. AI Express also operates on Goa, Jammu and Bhubaneswar routes.
Bengaluru-based aviation company Star Air also operates two flights from Hindon to Nanded in Maharashtra and Adampur in Punjab under the regional connectivity scheme. The other three routes—Bathinda, Ludhiana and Kishanganj—are operated by Gurgaon-based FlyBig.
The increase in operations has brought fresh challenges, as the terminal, which previously handled only Udan flights with limited traffic, is now seeing a rapid surge in demand.
With the new additions, work is underway to revamp a 1.5km road from Sikandarpur police post to the terminal building. The Aerodrome Advisory Committee (ADC) also meets regularly to discuss capacity expansion and service enhancements. Plans include round-the-clock medical and ambulance services, increased police patrolling and improvements to passenger facilities.
Last week, UP housing board commissioner Balkar Singh visited Hindon to review the work.