Cyclone Fani: Flight operations resume at Kolkata and Bhubaneswar airports

As cyclone 'Fani' has moved away, flight operations resumed at Kolkata and Bhubaneswar airports on Saturday, said ministry of civil aviation.

"Flight operations to and from Bhubaneswar airport has resumed. Alliance Air flight from Ranchi is the first flight to land," tweeted the ministry on Saturday at 4.26 pm. 

Alliance Air is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India. It mainly operates domestic routes under regional connectivity scheme UDAN.

Kolkata airport, owned and managed by Airports Authority of India (AAI), also tweeted that flight operations have resumed.

"Air India AI 743 to Agartala is the first departure from Kolkata at 0957 hrs; G8 101 from Delhi is the first flight to land in Kolkata at around 1010 hrs," it said on Twitter. 

IndiGo, which has around 44 per cent domestic passenger market share, resumed its operations to and from Bhubaneswar airport at 5.20 pm and Kolkata airport at 3.30 pm. 

About the Bhubaneswar airport, which is also owned and managed by AAI, the civil aviation ministry said Saturday,"After the devastating effects of Cyclone Fani, all foreign objects and debris from the operational area have been cleaned up." 

On Friday, the equipment and infrastructure at the Bhubaneswar airport was considerably damaged due to the cyclone 'Fani'.

"The passenger terminal building at Bhubaneswar has been considerably damaged, particularly at the rooftop and facades... Based on the feedback and action taken, it was decided that Bhubaneswar will resume commercial flight operations with effect from 1300 IST on May 4, 2019," the ministry had said Friday in a statement.

A day after the "rarest of rare" summer cyclone 'Fani' ravaged parts of Odisha, killing at least 12 people, a massive restoration-and-relief work was launched on war-footing on Saturday across 10,000 villages and urban areas, officials said.

On Saturday, Air India said that it will send relief materials free of cost to cyclone affected areas of Odisha.

"National carrier Air India steps forward to help the residents of odisha affected by the cyclone. If any (NGO/ Civil society/ SHG etc) wants to send relief materials to cyclone affected areas of Odisha, Air India would ship it free of cost," it said.

"Concerned NGO/ Civil Society/ SHG etc may contact Resident Commissioner office of Odisha at Delhi," it added.