flybig, India’s newest airline, has been on a rapid expansion mode ever since its flight operations began in January 2021. On 2nd May 2022 Shillong became the 8th destination for flybig in the North East of India after 4 cities in Assam, 2 cities in Arunachal Pradesh and 1 city in Tripura.
flybig newest route, opens up several vistas of opportunities for people across demographic and socio-economic segments including potential for students who study in Delhi NCR and neighboring regions or working professionals especially (Government personnel) who are stationed in Delhi but whose home state is Meghalaya or any neighboring state or area. Similarly, quicker air travel times of air vs Rail and Road travel (which was earlier the preferred mode of transport to travel between Delhi and Shillong) coupled with greater frequency of access provided by the Shillong-Delhi bi-weekly flight is likely to increase the potential for both movement of people and goods.
Further, with the introduction of this route it deepens the market access between metropolitan air hubs such as Delhi, Kolkata and the North east. In terms of time and resources saved, the flybig operation would end up saving more than 600,000 man-hours in comparison to rail travel and nearly 90,000 man-hours saved when compared to other air carriers.
Explanation: – 42 hours of train travel minus 3.5 hrs of travel by flybig = 38.5 hours of travel time saved multiplied 78 seats x 2 (to & fro) x 2 (twice weekly) x 52 weeks = 624,624 man-hours of train travel time saved. Air Travel Manhours saved – Average 9 hours of flying commute time minus 3.5 hours of flying time on flybig = 5.5 hours of time saved x 78 seats x 2 (to & fro) x 2 (twice weekly) x 52 weeks of ops = 89,232 man-hours saved.
It can be clearly projected through estimates that the Shillong-Delhi operation of flybig would introduce enhanced efficiencies and productivity for several local and regional businesses especially those who aspire to connect with a major transport and commercial hub such as Delhi and beyond. This would imply further enhancement of efficiency of transportation for Government, infrastructure project teams, paramilitary personnel and defence forces by saving both cost and man-hours,
In terms of seat capacity added by flybig through the Shillong-Delhi operations it added 312 seats per week which accumulated to a capacity of 16,224 seats per annum.
Speaking on this growth and route expansion, CMD flybig Captain Sanjay Mandavia said, “I feel very proud and privileged that flybig has become the fastest growing airline in India with true people connect. Not only have we effectively converted thousands of passengers from rail to air, but we have also provided connectivity to lakhs of passengers from across India, including the whole North-East.”
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It is to be noted that conventional travel by train takes about 42 hours while travel via other airline operators on the Shillong-Delhi route takes 8-10 hours (with atleast one stoppage).
The schedule for the twice-weekly flybig Flight Service between Shillong (SHL) and Delhi (Del) has been commenced on May 2nd, 2022, is as follows:
SHL-DEL
Departure from Shillong at 9:20 hrs. and Arrival at Delhi at 12:25 hrs.
DEL – SHL
Departure from Delhi at 12:55 hrs. and Arrival at Shillong at 16:20 hrs.
flybig return airfare for this route is starting from Rs 9998 + Applicable Taxes