The longest and shortest non-stop flight routes in India this winter that every passenger should know

The northern winter schedule of aviation begins on the last Sunday of October and is in force until the last Saturday of March. This is the shorter of the two schedules but overlaps with the festival season in most countries.

This year, the Indian aviation regulator DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has approved 25007 weekly flights, translating to 3572 daily departures on an average. On the first day of the schedule, the airlines combined operated 3204 flights, or 89.7% of the approved schedule.

Analysis done on the basis of data shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, throws out some interesting statistics about the shortest and longest domestic routes in the country.

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The longest and shortest route in India

Alliance Air, the only government run airline in India, operates the shortest route in the country between Itanagar and Zero. The route is operated by the sole Dornier 228, which it operates twice a week, covering a distance of 69 kilometres in 35 minutes of block time.

Block time is the total time a flight takes, which includes the time from pushback at departure to reaching the parking bay at arrival.

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Air India’s service from Delhi to Port Blair is the longest flight in India, where the airlines’ Airbus A320neo takes three hours and thirty five minutes to fly the 2,467 kms to Port Blair from Delhi. The airline has increased frequency this season.

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How are the other mainline carriers doing?

IndiGo, India’s largest airline, sees its longest route being between Bengaluru and Srinagar with a distance of 2321 kms and a scheduled block time of three hours and thirty five minutes. The airline deploys the A320neo aircraft on this route.

The shortest route for the airline is the daily service between Kozhikode and Kochi operated with the ATR 72-600 where the 119 kms are covered in fourty minutes. The airline’s longest ATR route is the 764 kms flight to Shirdi from Vijayawada, which takes two hours and fifteen minutes, while its smallest Airbus route is that between Srinagar and Jammu which is a distance of 145 kms.

The flight between Jammu and Srinagar is the shortest in the network for Air India, as well as SpiceJet, which is slowly adding capacity in the market. SpiceJet’s longest route is to Bagdogra from Mumbai at 1794 kms.For Akasa Air, the shortest route is between Guwahati and Agartala (154 kms), while its longest route is between Mumbai and Guwahati at 2074 kms.

For Air India Express, the short 50 minutes and 135 kms hop to Mangalore from Kannur is the shortest route in its domestic network, while at 2041 kms the Delhi – Kochi sector is the longest.

How are the regional players operating?

For government-owned alliance Air, the 887 km long route to Bilaspur from Delhi is the longest in its network. A whole lot of new airports have become operational in Uttar Pradesh with Flybig operating to them and the 140 kms flight to Shravasti from Lucknow is the shortest for Flybig while the 304 km long flight to Bhatinda from Hindon is the longest. The airline operates the DHC twin otter aircraft. For IndiaOne air, its Cessna 208 flies 420 kms between Cooch Behar and Kolkata as its longest flight while its shortest is just 142 kms between Jeypore and Vizag. Goa based Fly91 which has two planes in its fleet, flies the 288 km long Pune to SIndhudurg as its shortest route while Goa to Jalgaon at 608 kms is its longest.

The oldest regional operator, Star Air has been building focus cities in the last few years and now sees the Hyderabad – Nanded route as its shortest at 246 kms, serviced by The E145s, while its longest is the Bengaluru – Jamnagar route at 1308 kms, also serviced by the E145s showing the potential of regional jets in India.

How is it internationally?

The thrice-weekly Air India service from Bengaluru to San Francisco continues to be the longest international flight from India. It covers a distance of 13987 kms in 16 hours and 20 minutes and returns in 18 hours as scheduled block time.

The shortest international flight from India is operated by Druk Air to Paro from Bagdogra and is a distance of 137 km.

Tail Note

The schedule will see new and progressive additions as we move ahead and possible changes to this list. Overall, the domestic schedule has started on a good note. The softening of demand, impact on airfares, and capacity addition will be keenly watched this winter.