Shirdi to Mumbai trial flight lands successfully

The maiden trial flight from Mumbai to Shirdi landed successfully at the newly constructed airport on Tuesday evening.

The Alliance Air ATR 72-600 aircraft touched down at 5 pm on Tuesday with the state's civil aviation minister and other dignitaries on board.

The flight, which took off from Mumbai at 4.15pm with Maharashtra's Civil Aviation Minister Ram Shinde, senior officials from the DGCA and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security along with senior state government officials, was received at the airport by local MLA Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil.

The 72-seater ATR plane of Air India's regional arm Alliance Air took off from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 4.15 pm and successfully landed in 45 minutes at Shirdi airport, Maharashtra Airport Development Company's (MADC) vice-chairman and managing director Suresh Kakani said.

Owned and developed by MADC, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to develop airports in the state, the aerodrome in the temple town is set for inauguration at the hands of President Ram Nath Kovind on October 1.

The full-fledged commercial operations, however, will commence at a later date.

On September 21, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had granted aerodrome licence to the airport in Shirdi for public use for day operations "after ensuring compliance with all relevant standards."

Besides Alliance Air, the Hyderabad-based regional airline TruJet and Zoom Air will also be flying to Shirdi.

Budget carrier IndiGo has also applied for launching air services to Shirdi, Kakani had earlier said.