NASHIK, July 7: Nashik is no longer in the airmap of the country and has returned to its earlier status of being a city with two airports but no air link. The `Maharashtra Spanair', a joint venture of the Maharashtra government and the Span Airways, which had introduced a single flight daily on the Mumbai-Nashik route in April this year, suspended the flights from July 1.

A spokesperson of the airline told The Indian Express that the flights on the Mumbai-Nashik route had been suspended for two months, till September 14. The official reason being given for the suspension is `unfair weather during the monsoon.' However, flight users point out that lack of patronage by passengers due to an unreasonably high fare of Rs 1,000 and lack of punctuality, are the real reasons behind the suspension.

The Airline (in which Maharashtra government's undertaking SICOM and Span Airways are partners) had launched the Mumbai-Nashik flight on April 22, with much fanfare, as per the ambitious plans of the Manohar Joshi government to interlink all districts having airports. Maharashtra Spanair had introduced a 12 seater aircraft on the route with one flight daily on weekdays. Nashik was the third district covered by the airline, after Pune and Kolhapur.

Nashik has two airports, on at Gandhinagar (used by the Army) and the other at Osar, about 20 kms from Nashik (belonging to the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd). From 1972, the Indian Airlines used to operate one flight daily on the Nashik-Mumbai route in a 40 seater Avro aircraft.

In 1989 the Vayudoot took over and introduced a Bornier aircraft on the route till June 1992, after which it was closed down. Vayudoot's service had left much to be desired, as the flights were always late or cancelled. In 1997 when Spanair introduced its flights, Nashik found a place in the airmap again.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.