Alliance Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India, is starting daily flights from Ranchi to Calcutta, Raipur, and Bhubaneswar in an attempt to bolster regional connectivity.

The inaugural flight, from Ranchi to Raipur, is scheduled to take off at 4pm on Friday, December 7 in the presence of Union minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha. Regular flights will commence from December 8.

Flight 9I 727, a 70-seater ATR-72, will take off from Calcutta 5.50am and arrive at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport at 7.25 am. From Ranchi, it will depart at 7.50am for Bhubaneshwar where it will land at 8.50am. From Bhubaneswar, it will take off again at 9.15am and reach Calcutta at 11.10am.

The same aircraft will operate in the afternoon as flight 9I 719. It will leave Calcutta at 12 noon and arrive at Bhubaneswar at 1.30pm. It will leave Bhubaneswar at 2pm and arrive at Ranchi at 3.15pm from where it will depart at 3.45pm and reach Raipur at 5.20pm. The flight will take off from Raipur at 5.50pm and land at Ranchi at 7.15pm. It will leave Ranchi at 7.45pm and reach Calcutta at 9pm.

Both flights will help residents of Ranchi as well as those who come here on business regularly as they will now have a late night option to travel to Calcutta.

“It is our constant endeavour to connect various parts of India to its fast-growing aviation network, contributing to the overall development of all the regions especially the inaccessible and remote areas,” said T.K. Saha, co-ordinator (eastern region) Alliance Air.

“Ranchi is expanding at a rapid pace and is one of the 100 Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under a plan named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The commencement of the new flight service will fulfil a longstanding demand of people for air connectivity from Ranchi to Raipur, Bhubaneswar and Calcutta,” he added.