Flying to Agra will be a lot of fun

In a unique bid to promote tourist inflow and make air connectivity sustainable in the city of the Taj, local authorities and businesses have started offering attractive discounts to those who travel to Agra by air. "This will be a new class of tourists, who will get the maximum facilities and support from us all, so that more tourists come to Agra by air," Prahlad Agarwal, senior representative of the handicrafts sector, said. The move comes after daily domestic flights to Agra were started Oct 31 after a long gap. According to Agra tourism guild president Rajiv Narain, hotels are working on special packages that would attract more tourists that arrive by air. "Hotels are also doing this. They are either tying up with airlines or travel agents to provide a better deal to air passengers in the city as a complete package, including the ticket price," Narain said. Even leading shoe manufacturer Pooran Dawar said tourists coming by air would be allowed a special discount on the purchase of Agra shoes and would be shown the Taj Mahal free. The 17th century world famous monument attracts around 20,000 visitors every day. The freebies for air travellers comes after meetings were held between local government representatives, industry leaders and the Civil Aviation Ministry officials in the national capital to chart out ways to increase air connectivity for the city of the Taj. The team which came back to the city reported a positive response from the ministry, which has agreed in principle to operationalise the newly installed instrument landing system (ILS) at the local Kheria airport. "We have received assurances from Civil Aviation Secretary Naseem Zaidi that steps would be taken soon in this regard (night landing facility)," Rajiv Tiwari, a senior tourism industry leader, said. According to Tiwari, who led a team of tourism industry representatives and held discussions with senior civil aviation ministry officials, the step would usher in more tourist and aviation business for the city. "We have also met Alok Sinha, joint secretary in the civil aviation ministry, and airlines executives to explore the possibilities of adding some more flights and attracting traffic," Tiwari said. The meetings came against the backdrop of Kingfisher Airline starting its first scheduled flight service between New Delhi and Agra. Kingfisher also started its ticketing facility for all destinations from Agra itself for its connecting flights. "Kingfisher is mulling over connecting Agra with Jaipur also. This would be a great boost to tourism in the golden triangle," according to Rajiv Tiwari, president of the Federation of Travel Agents Association. Airline major Air India will start operating connecting flights via Agra to Varanasi and Khajuraho from Dec 1. This winter, for the first time, scores of international charter flights are scheduled to land at Kheria. The local administration has, on its part, approached the state government to reduce taxes on air turbine fuel (ATF) to four percent from the present 20 per cent. "This would attract airlines to introduce more flights to Agra, which last year had more than five million visitors," Agra Divisional Commissioner Amrit Abhijat said. Agra tourism agencies are upbeat and hopeful the experiment with air connectivity would be a big hit, as those coming by road from New Delhi waste precious hours of uncertainty due to traffic jams.