Air carriers would soon resume operations from the Sambra Airport, Belgaum, within a span of three months. The information was provided by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. Earlier, Kingfisher Airlines was the only carrier that was operating from the Sambra airport. The airline stopped its services on the 17th June 2009, citing low load factor. As such, presently, there are no airlines operating from the Belgaum airport, despite the fact that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is currently upgrading it.
Praful Patel said that the step of again starting operations from the Belgaum airport was acted upon after taking into consideration the complaints from the residents. Belgaum Airport is one of the 35 non-metro airports, being modernized, by AAI, at an investment of Rs.12,434 crore. Besides Belgaum, there are four new Greenfield Airports coming up in the state - Gulbarga, Bijapur, Hassan and Shimoga.
