The Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC) on Saturday signed an agreement with SpiceJet for operating direct flights between Shillong and Delhi, officials said here.

The flights will operate twice a week on Monday and Friday, they said.

"SpiceJet approached the state government and offered to operate the Delhi-Shillong-Delhi flights on its own as per the extant terms of MTC. SpiceJet has a total fleet of 23 Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft. The same aircraft will be deployed for the Delhi-Shillong-Delhi route," an official of the CM's office said in a statement.

The flights are expected to start operating from February 2023, it added.

SpiceJet is looking forward to fulfil the commitment of the state government and to meet the aspirations of the citizens of Meghalaya with direct flights between Shillong and Delhi, the statement said.

An initiative to operate direct Delhi-Shillong-Delhi flights was undertaken by the state government in 2020.

Initially, Big Charter Pvt Ltd (FlyBig) was engaged to operate the flights.

FlyBig had deployed Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft on the route which were initially chartered from SpiceJet. However, FlyBig later expressed its inability to continue the operations. Subsequently, the state government held several deliberations with FlyBig and also explored other alternatives.

Accordingly, the agreement with FlyBig was terminated last year.

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