A year after flights to Dubai and Singapore took off from the Lohegaon airport, the city’s dream of turning into an international destination seems to have hit an air pocket. With no private airlines coming forward to start new flights mainly due to commercial considerations even the government run Air India and Indian have ruled out flights to newer destinations in the near future.

While lack of commercial interest is a reason, restrictions on the number of civilian flights by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and paucity of infrastructure at the airport are major factors for airlines staying away from the city. “The airport has reached the saturation level for day time operations with the Air Force not giving permissions for new flights due to their operational requirements. A blanket ban has been put in place for day operations and the only slots left free are from midnight onwards,” an airport official said.

There had been talks of starting operations to Europe and America when the first international flight took off last year on December 12, but the limited runway at Lohegaon (8,300 feet) has proved to be a damper. “The length of the runway at Pune is too short for landing heavier aircraft needed for direct operations to Europe and America that require planes to fly for over 8 hours. The runway has to be strengthened as well as extended before flights to these destinations can take off,” MCCIA civil aviation committee chairperson S K Jain said. The two airlines that have been cleared by the DGCA for international operations from the city — Lufthansa and Sri Lankan Airlines — are also in no hurry to start flights. “We have got permission but have not planned out any flight from Pune yet,” Dimuthu Tennakoon, Manager, Maharashtra & Gujarat, Sri Lankan Airlines said. He insisted that ‘commercial issues’ and not lack of infrastructure at Lohegaon are the reasons for not introducing new flights.