Ludhiana, Dec. 11 -- Punjab's industrial hub of Ludhiana lost air connectivity after the lone flight from Sahnewal airport was withdrawn three months ago. Big Charter Private Limited Company that operated the lone flight of FlyBig Airlines from Ludhiana-Hindon closed its office at the airport in September-end when the service was discontinued. Sahnewal airport director Jagir Singh said the airport is operational and was being used for providing air training to National Cadet Corps (NCC). Rajya Sabha member Rajinder Gupta recently raised the issue of operationalising the Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Kartar Singh Sarabha airport at Halwara, highlighting its potential to drive development in Punjab. "Ludhiana alone contributes over Rs.72,000 crore to India's industrial output and is home to more than 1.5 lakh micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), one of the highest concentrations in the country. Yet, the region lacks a functional commercial airport, putting it at a competitive disadvantage compared to rapidly growing hubs, such as Jaipur, Indore, Surat, Rajkot and Coimbatore," Gupta said. Rahul Verma, and industrialist and director of the Punjab Dyers Association, said flights to Sahnewal used to remain non-operational in winter due to fog in the absence of landing facility in low visibility given its short runway. Verma urged the government to launch flight services from the civil terminal at the Indian Air Force's Halwara airport "by setting aside political ego". He said that industrialists were forced to travel to Delhi by road, a 309-km distance that takes over five hours. Prime Minister Modi was to virtually inaugurate the civil terminal on July 27, however, it was postponed indefinitely and the airport has been lying non-operational. Though the Punjab government had approved the airport project in 2018, the civil work was delayed due to lack of funds. Construction began only after the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority took possession of the land in 2020. The public works department (PWD) was given the contract in December 2021, with the target of June 2022, but funds were delayed until November 2022. Work resumed in December 2022 after chief minister Bhagwant Mann stepped in. The entire project cost is estimated at Rs.54 crore, which the Punjab government has covered and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is expected to reimburse. Nine years after the civil terminal at Bathinda took off, it is left with a single operator, Alliance Air, flying a 48-seater aircraft four days a week to a single destination, Jammu. Initially, the civil terminal located 30km from Bathinda town adjoining the Indian Air Force station at Bhisiana was connected to the national capital region of Delhi, too. Flights to Jammu were discontinued on October 27, 2019, while those to Delhi were grounded from November 28, 2020, during the Covid pandemic. Civilian flight operations resumed in October 2023 with Fly Big to Hindon in Ghaziabad and Alliance Air to Delhi. FlyBig wound up operations on September 27, 2025. The post of Bathinda airport director has been lying vacant after Sawar Mal Singaria was transferred to Udaipur in Rajasthan in October. According to official sources, FlyBig operated a 19-seater aircraft, but its average occupancy rate was only 26%. "FlyBig was generally opening sales for 11-12 tickets, but the average occupancy remained 4-6 passengers per flight. It was a new player in the aviation sector, but it could not survive," said an official privy to the developments. Alliance Air manager Laxman Bhardwaj said: "On an average, 40-46 seats are booked on every flight. Bathinda and adjoining districts have important institutions, such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Central University besides defence establishments and the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College in Faridkot. There is ample scope for air connectivity to Jammu to meet the demand from Malwa districts for the pilgrimage to Vaishno Devi shrine and defence institutions in Jammu and Kashmir." A senior faculty member of Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, said there is potential for aviation growth in Malwa, but poor road infrastructure is a problem. "The airport at Virk Kalan is connected to the highway by a 3-metre-wide rural road," the associate professor said. Officials said that the public works department (PWD) had submitted a proposal in February 2023 for a Rs.51-crore greenfield road project. Deputy commissioner Rajesh Dhiman said that the state authorities have yet to approve the project that requires land acquisition. Revamped at a cost of Rs.125 crore under the UDAN 5.0 scheme, Adampur airport, 20km from the Jalandhar district headquarters in the heart of Punjab's NRI belt of Doaba, sees only one flight a day: The Star Air flight to Nanded and Bengaluru via Hindon and back. The flight to Nanded, home to one of the five Takhts of Sikhism, Takht Sri Hazoor Sahib, has been operating since March last year. An IndiGo flight that had been operating daily between Adampur and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai has been cancelled for the past week due to operational lapses. It was launched on July 2, 2025, providing convenient access to domestic and international destinations through connecting flights via Mumbai. After a Rs.125-crore revamp, the airport with state-of the-art facilities can to handle 300 passengers during peak hours but wears a deserted look with just one flight in operation. Adampur airport director Pushpendra Kumar said till a week ago, both flights had over 60% of occupancy daily. "The connectivity to Sri Hazoor Sahib caters to pilgrims from across Punjab. Star Air is a boon for the region," he said. He admitted there was no scope for expansion as no other private airliner had come up with a feasibility survey. Rattandeep Singh, a Canada-based NRI, said it would be better if Adampur is connected to the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi instead of Hindon in Ghaziabad. "It's difficult to commute from Hindon to Delhi airport due to traffic jams so most NRIs take the direct flight to the national capital from Amritsar instead," he said. Spread over 40 acres, the civil terminal uses the air strip of Adampur air force station and resumed operations after four years from March 31 last year. Operations were suspended at the airport during the pandemic in 2020. Inaugurated in 2018, it used to provide connectivity to Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur, but lack of demand shut operations on these routes. Travellers complain of the 4.3-km rural stretch to the airport, while officials say the process of road widening is stuck due to delay in land acquisition. The Pathankot civil terminal, built at a cost of Rs.37 crore over 75 acres, was inaugurated nearly two decades ago but has remained grounded for most of the period. A 70-seater Alliance Air aircraft connecting Pathankot to New Delhi was the last flight to operate from the terminal. It was started on April 5, 2018, after a gap of seven years under the UDAN scheme. Received amid much fanfare by then Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, the flight operated thrice a week but was grounded two years ago as it had become commercially unviable, according to government sources. Back at the inauguration on November 21, 2006, then Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel had promised more flights after the Delhi-Pathankot-Kullu one. Despite the infrastructure, the airport has not seen a regular flight since 2011. Air India agreed to operate on the sector and started flights in 2010 thanks to the efforts of then Gurdaspur BJP MP Vinod Khanna, but halted operations a year later, citing losses. The runway is used by the military to transport goods and personnel off and on. An occasional chartered flight carrying VIPs and actors, particularly during the poll season, makes a landing at the deserted airport. Rajesh Pushkarna, who runs pharmaceutical business in Pathankot, said he used to take the Alliance Air flight to Delhi back in the day. "It used to run on full occupancy, but a civil airport cannot function with only one flight. The approach road to the airport runs along the bank of Chakki river and needs maintenance." While airport authorities were unavailable, Pathankot deputy commissioner Dr Pallavi expressed inability to comment on the issue. Pathankot MLA and Punjab BJP working president Ashwani Sharma said, "Low passenger traffic is the problem here. During the previous regime of the BJP-led central government, I met then Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and urged him to find a solution. I suggested he launch the flight to Leh. Ensuring resumption of flights from this airport is my priority."...