Shillong, Mar 15: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Tuesday said the government will examine the matter for resuming the Delhi-Shillong-Delhi flight if Flybig fails to resume the service by the end of this month. At the same time, he said Flybig has cited some technical issues to resume the service and sought for time till the end of this month.

“The Flybig has got aircrafts now but due to some technical clearances from the Ministry, this entire process is pending. We hope that we will see some kind of movement happening in the next few weeks. If that is not happening, we will examine the entire process and see what will be the next step to go forward,” Sangma said while supplementing to the reply of the Transport Minister Dasakhiatbha Lamare, who had informed that a show-cause notice was served to Flybig and they have requested time within this month to resume their services.

On the reasons for Shillong-Delhi flight being not operational, Lamare said the Flybig was chartering a Spicejet for the Delhi-Shillong-Delhi flight since its launch in December, 2020.

However, with the constraint of the 2nd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Spicejet was no longer able to provide its aircraft to Flybig on charter leading to a disruption in the service.

He said to resume service, Flybig looked at securing of an aircraft on dry lease but, however, due to the pandemic situation this was not possible leading to a further delay in resuming the Delhi-Shillong-Delhi flight.

Stating that the agreement with Flybig was signed in a very hurried basis and it is a lesson to be learnt, Lamare said that the department will wait till the end of this month and if Flybig is not able to provide the service, other steps will be taken.

The chief minister further clarified that the selection process was done through a tendering process where two parties had applied.

“Both of them were asked  to take specification of the airlines or the aircrafts that they will be using…However, the second party that had applied quoted very high compared to Flybig  because they were using a jet and the jet cost is higher,” he said.

On introduction of international flights, the chief minister informed that this will require the government to declare Shillong as in international aiport.

“Verbally, I have had a personal communication with the Union Minister of Civil Aviation saying that connectivity to Sylhet and Dhaka would be something that will improve the connectivity. Yes, we have started moving in that line also,” Sangma said.