A 42-seater aircraft will operate three days a week — Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The flight would depart New Delhi at 3 pm for the one-hour-and-35-minutes journey, and reach Allahabad at 4.55 pm.

A senior Air India official in Delhi, Senior Superintendent (Commercial) M M Malhotra said over phone that the tentative date for the start of new Air India regional flight is October 15.

Assistant Manager, Allahabad airport, Ranjeet Kumar confirmed the move. “Senior officials of Air India had recently visited the airport to see its potential, and they had agreed to start a new flight soon,” he said.

He added that the airport is ready for the new flights. “But, if more airlines start operation in future, the airport has to be upgraded,” Kumar said.

Meanwhile, JetLite (earlier Air Sahara) has also decided to operate its flight between New Delhi and Allahabad on all weekdays from October, sources said.

At present, JetLite is the only airline, which operates from this airport.

It has been operating flights for New Delhi via Gorakhpur three days a week — Monday, Wednesday and Friday. JetLite officials, however, said the decision has nothing to do with the start of operation by Air India regional.

Deepak Khare, Sales Manager, JetLite said, “It takes a lot to start a new operation or change flight schedules. But, we are almost prepared now.”