Sikkim-Kolkata air link revival tomorrow – Times of India

KOLKATA: The city’s air link with Sikkim will be revived on Monday when SpiceJet resumes flights from Kolkata to Pakyong airport after a 20-month hiatus. The airline will operate the Bombardier Q400 turboprop aircraft with a 78-passenger capacity on the sector six days a week.
“The flight will take off from Kolkata at 9.45am and reach Pakyong at 11.05am. The return flight will take off at 11.25am and reach Kolkata at 12.45pm. The flight will operate on all days except Thursday,” an airline spokesperson said.
SpiceJet had introduced the Kolkata-Pakyong flight in 2019, but services had to be suspended within months following low visibility due to poor weather conditions.
“Flights were required to adhere to visual flight rules (VFR) earlier. To land with the VFR approach, a pilot needed to see the runway clearly from a distance of 5km. Given the topography and weather conditions at Pakyong, it was difficult to get many clear days when visibility could extend to 5km. Flights had to be suspended after May 23, 2019. Now, we have adopted performance-based navigation (PBN) where the visibility requirement is 2,400m. Flights have commenced operation between Delhi and Pakyong. From Monday, Kolkata will be relinked,” Pakyong airport director Ramtanu Saha said.
PBN allows aircraft to fly on a specific path with two 3D-defined points in space to reach the airport. “The system will enable operations of aircraft with a high level of accuracy,” an ATC official explained.