SpiceJet has withdrawn all its 5 services from Belagavi(IXG) from May 14 and diverted it to Hubballi as it was allotted to the operator under RCS UDAN scheme. But now time has come for citizens of Belagavi to Rise and along with the #SaveIXG Social media campaign which gaining ground day after day.
Amidst the May heat which has become more blistering with the election campaigning, the Save Belagavi Airport team is working behind the scenes to #SaveIXG.
Yes we are just almost a week away from May 13, which will be the last day as of now which will see 5 flights a day, from May 14 only one flight to Bengaluru will land and takeoff that too only six days week (no flight on Tuesday).
The growing city which has so many fathers to its cap, but lack of political will and push has brought us at this stage.
But have heard anything from the contesting candidates on this Issue? We haven’t heard for sure. The other day a group of BJP members did meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and spoke to him about inclusion of Belagavi under the UDAN scheme.
Emails, Letters, Faxes all have been sent to all the high officers who could influence this, but as of now we haven’t heard anything positive. Many say some good announcement could be made after the elections.
The SaveIXG team which includes an array of people from various backgrounds from frequent fliers, industrialists, Bankers, Social workers you name them and one is there on the group trying his best to somehow get the word about IXG noticed and how lesser flights could impact the overall growth and image of the city.
Belagavi being regional headquarters of North west Karnataka, can the Regional commissioner also help in SavingIXG ? Most importantly the elected representatives must make noise about this and get the higher authorities hear it as well. Just hitting a drum in your house and hearing to it is useless, get the drum outside hit it hard and let drum beats reach the audible levels to reach the concern in New Delhi.
The Battle has just began and it will take a lot of efforts for us to win over this.
Adverse impacts of NO flights:
Foreign delegations which now have an option to come to IXG from Various destinations, now would be confined to only one.
The Aerospace industry with AEQUS and other players who have earned a niche for themselves will face difficulty in getting clients to their offices.
Educational institutions will face a hard time getting expert speakers as many prefer to save on travel time.
The locals who have been involved at the airport will also suffer a lot as they might not shift to Hubballi as they are locals from nearby villages.
The Taxi drivers, Auto Drivers who ferry passengers from the airport will also face the heat.
Expectations in the short run:
As per our sources IXG could see the Boeing or Airbus land soon, but when that cannot be told or quantified, but operators like Indigo are serious on expanding and we could get a Hop over flight from south to the north.
All said and one but even today this issue has not picked up as it had to, many would attribute it to we never travel so why should we bothered. True to some extent, but the larger issue one has to look at is Brand BELAGAVI is getting affected and hence the closure of flights can have a cascading affect if not directly but citizens will have to spend more time and money on travel while our earnest HBX will be happy about its UDAN.
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