An Indian airline will commence commercial flights between Jaffna and Chennai from Monday it announced, with plans to step up connections between the two regions.
Flights are due to start on Monday 11th of November, with a one-way fare reportedly costing in the region of USD $45 plus taxes.
"This will be the first non-stop service between Chennai and Jaffna”, said C.S. Subbiah, CEO of Alliance Air, the Indian airline that will be running the service.
“Initially, we will be operating three flights a week and this will increase to one flight a day,” said Air India Chairman and Managing Director, Ashwani Lohani.“If it does well, we can increase its frequency.”
T K Rohit also reported in The Hindu that,
"The opening up of Jaffna airport for international civilian flights is expected to reduce passenger traffic at Colombo international airport, as the mostly Tamil population in Jaffna will now be able to travel abroad without having to undertake a nearly eight hour journey to the Sri Lankan capital city".
Plans are also afoot to launch services to Tiruchirappalli, Madurai and other cities in Tamil Nadu, restarting the decades-long prohibition of air services to Tamil Eelam.
