The flight services from Northeast India’s first greenfield airstrip–Pakyong airport is all set to resume its operations from October 27th, 2019 re-linking the mountainous state of Sikkim with the national aviation map.
Earlier in the month of June this year, SpiceJet had suspended its Pakyong-Kolkata service till September 21st, 2019 due to the unpredictable weather resulting in low visibility and hampering flight operations especially during the monsoon. SpiceJet is the only airline that runs daily Kolkata-Pakyong-Kolkata flights from the airport.
Meanwhile, the airlines’ company has opened ticket bookings for Kolkata-Pakyong-Kolkata flight services.
It may be mentioned that Sikkim got into the aviation map after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the State’s first airport at Pakyong on September 24th, 2018. The first commercial flight operations started in October 2018.
The airport is totally based on visual flight rules mode (VFR) and needs at least 5 kilometres visibility to land. The visibility is expected to improve after the rainy season.
The airport, spread over 400 ha (990 acres), is located at Pakyong town about 35km south of Gangtok at 4500 ft. The Pakyong Airport is one of the five highest airports in India.
Photo: Prakash Adhikari
