Odishatv Bureau

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today urged Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu to restore Air India's flight services from Biju Patnaik International Airport  to Bangkok and Bengaluru.

The flight service provider, on July 17 had suddenly announced suspension of the flights from the Bhubaneswar Airport from July 16 till October 3 without citing any reasons.

Billing the flight suspension as a 'severe jolt to the State's tourism and aviation sectors', Patnaik, in a letter to the Prabhu urged him to take up the matter with the Air India management for resuming of the operations.

He also asked Prabhu to explore more international operations from Bhubaneswar to other South East Asian countries considering the immense potential of these routes.

"The abrupt suspension of the existing operations has been a severe jolt to the aviation and tourism sector in the state. Similarly the withdrawal of the domestic flight between Bangalore and Bhubaneswar has come as a setback for the IT industry in the state," wrote Patnaik in his letter.

Air India started its international flight services from Bhubaneswar to Bangkok on December 10, 2017. It was expected that the national carrier would start operation to other destinations like Singapore, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

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