After direct flights to Lucknow and Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi is set to get a new flight connecting the state capital to Pune, a city which has a sizeable population of students and working professionals from Jharkhand but did not have direct air connectivity with the state, officials from the Birsa Munda Airport said on Sunday.

Two private airlines – Indigo and Spicejet – have offered to start direct flights between Ranchi and Pune by the end of August, airport director Vinod Sharma said. While the exact dates and schedule of the flights are not final yet, it is confirmed that Ranchi will get direct air connectivity with Pune this month itself, Sharma added.

“We have received proposals from Indigo Airlines and Spicejet for direct flights to Pune. Passenger flight services from here to Pune are likely to start in the last week of August,” said Sharma.

Several students and working professionals, especially those employed with IT firms, travel regularly from their hometowns in Jharkhand to Pune. So far, these frequent travellers had to either travel by trains or take connecting flights either via Mumbai, Bangalore or New Delhi, airport officials said. Connecting flights, officials said, were not only more time consuming, but also more expensive than direct flights.

Tickets may cost around Rs 5,000 for direct flights to Pune from Ranchi, sources said, claiming that the first Indigo Airline’s flight from Ranchi to Pune was likely to take off on August 21, departing around 2pm and reaching Pune around 4pm.

Indigo Airlines has already started direct flights to Lucknow, while Alliance Air has launched flight services connecting Kolkata, Ranchi and Bhubaneshwar. Earlier this year, Ranchi also got new flights to Ahmedabad and Chennai.

The Airport Advisory Committee (AAI) in Ranchi and trade bodies have been pressing for new flights to tier- two cities across India with the hope that it may grow business prospects. At a meeting of the transport department, it was decided that the government will focus on connecting Ranchi to Trivandrum, Patna, Guwahati, Chandigarh and other tier two cities.

At present, at least 20 flights connect Ranchi to New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. The Birsa Munda Airport, which bagged the top position in Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) last year, at present has a 75 meter basic strip, which is the minimum length required for any airport.

The State capital was likely to get more flights earlier this year, but the second wave of Covid-19 caused a delay in the process, officials said.