The direct flight from Delhi to Shimla is now operational again after a gap of two years. Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Dr VK Singh and Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur inaugurated the direct flight at Ghaziabad’s Hindon Airport on Tuesday under RCS UDAN scheme. Earlier the recommencement of this flight was scheduled on September 6 but due to bad weather conditions the flight could not commence operations.

To offer enhanced air connectivity between Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Alliance Air have recommenced the Delhi-Shimla-Delhi flight which will operate daily from September 26 from Delhi’s IGI Airport. This flight will operate with a brand new ATR42-600.

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Introductory fares and timings

The flight from Delhi (Flight 9I 821) will depart at 7.10 am and arrive in Shimla at 8.20 am. The flight from Shimla (Flight 9I 822) will depart at 8.50 am and arrive in Delhi at 10 am. The introductory all-inclusive fares for Delhi-Shimla and Shimla-Delhi will be Rs 2,141.

Initially, this flight of Alliance Air was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017. After operating for more than 2 years under UDAN, this flight was discontinued due to the renovation of the airport and the unavailability of suitable aircraft. Meanwhile, AAI has renovated Shimla airport and Alliance Air has inducted ATR-42 aircraft exclusively to connect airports of Himachal Pradesh. Singh said that the Ministry is working to further increase this ATR connectivity from Shimla to Kullu and Shimla to Dharmshala.

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Enhanced connectivity will help bolster tourism and trade in the region and contribute to the economic development of the states. Alliance Air had said that there are only window or aisle seats in Alliance Air and the airlines claims that they have comfortable leg space with a seat pitch of 30 inch.

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) Secretary Rajiv Bansal, Additional Secretary Usha Padhee, Lok Sabha MP Suresh Kashyap, Principal Secretary to the Government of Himachal Pradesh Devesh Kumar, CMD AI Assets Holding Limited (AIAHL) Vikram Dutt, CEO Alliance Air Vineet Sood, among other dignitaries were also present at the inauguration.