Pune is the ninth busiest airport in India in terms of passenger traffic and aircraft movement. It is a defence enclave with less scope of expansion. It has a short runway so widebody aircraft can’t operate. This limits the growth opportunity to short and mid-haul destinations. Currently, no daytime slots are available at Pune airport. A new airport is stuck in the regulatory process and construction is expected to start in 2019. Pune is only connected with three international destinations: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Frankfurt until now.
Jet Airways is now going to launch a new service to Singapore, using a Boeing 737 aircraft. The launch is scheduled for December 1, 2018. This would mark Pune’s first international service to the other side of the world.
Pune to Singapore
The flight will have the following schedule,
9W22 PNQ0510–1315SIN D 738
9W21 SIN2100–0005(+1)PNQ D 738
In case you are wondering if the aircraft will spend 7:45 hours on the ground at Singapore, it won’t. Jet Airways is adding a third daily flight from New Delhi to Singapore. The schedule for this flight is
9W16 DEL1130–2000SIN D 738
9W15 SIN1415–1800DEL D 738
Economy tickets start at INR 25k roundtrip.
Premiere tickets start at INR 69k roundtrip.
Passengers from Pune will also benefit from some connection opportunities with Jet Airways Code-share Partners. One can connect on Garuda Indonesia, Fiji Airways, Korean Air, Vietnam Airlines and Malaysia airlines to other Asian destinations and Qantas & Jetstar to Australia from Singapore.
Bottomline
Vistara wanted to start flights to Singapore from Pune once they fly international, but Jet Airways was holding those rights. And they have finally added a daily flight. It will be Pune’s first direct connection to the other half of the world.
Will Silkair join the party as well, as they were rumored to start flights from Pune to Singapore as well?
Why a 737 and not A330?
Pune runway is shorter. Can handle only 737 or 320/ 321. So 777 or 330 is ruled out.
This is actually not the first service to the East from Pune. Earlier Indian Airlines used to fly PNQ- SIN via HYD.