Odishatv Bureau

Bhubaneswar: Air Odisha CMD Radhakanta Pani on Sunday said the airlines will stop its intra-state operations in the State temporarily from Monday due to non-payment of Rs 60 lakh due on account of subsidy.

Pani told media persons, “The board of directors of the airlines decided to suspend the flight operations on all routes until the pending amount is sanctioned to us.”

Elaborating further Pani said, “Subsidy amount for the month of February is due so far though we submitted the bills on March 3,” adding he does not understand why there was a delay despite provisions are in place for immediate of release of the subsidy amount.

Till March 19, the airlines had been running its operations through an aircraft hired from a company based in Singapore, he added.

“As delay happens, it becomes difficult for small airlines like us to run operations. Once the due gets cleared, we will be able to fly our own aircraft and restart the operations,” Pani added. At present, the airlines’ aircraft is on schedule repair work.

Notably, the announcement of Air Odisha came exactly two months after the carrier undertook its maiden flight to Sambalpur from Biju Patnaik International airport in Bhubaneswar.

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