Chennai-Salem flight services resume after 3.5 years

CHENNAI: The daily direct flight services between Chennai and Salem have resumed from Sunday after a gap of three and a half years.

The flights had remained cancelled for this time period because of the pandemic. A total of 43 passengers including Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai were on board the first flight from Chennai Domestic Airport to Salem this morning.

Trujet, a private passenger airline, used to operate the direct flight services from Chennai to Salem.

The flight services to Salem from Chennai were cancelled in March 2020 when the flight operations were suspended across the country.

However, the Chennai-Salem-Chennai flight services were resumed only on Sunday after the flight services have started operating again in full swing across the country.

Private airline Trujet, which was already operating a flight from Chennai to Salem, has not come forward to resume the flight, which delayed the flight operations. Currently, Indigo Airlines is operating the daily flight services between Chennai-Salem-Chennai, starting Sunday.

The Indigo Airlines passenger flight departed the Chennai Domestic Airport at 11.20 am today and reached Salem Airport at 12.30 pm.

Thereafter the same flight departs from Salem at 12:50 pm and arrives at Chennai Domestic Airport at 1:45 pm. While there is only one flight per day being operated, the authorities said that there is a possibility of increasing the number of flights to two per day depending on the response of the passengers.

One way fare between Chennai and Salem is Rs 2,390 and in order to suit the passengers, there will be little change in fares.

According to the Chennai airport authorities, if the ticket is booked before the day of travel, it would cost a minimum of Rs 2,390.

Passengers who boarded the flight were greeted with roses upon arrival in Salem.