The Airport Authority of India (AAI), in its reply filed before a division bench of the MP high court in response to a petition alleging discrimination against Jabalpur vis-a-vis other major cities of the state in terms of air connectivity, said that starting flight operations from a place was not in its jurisdiction. It is a decision taken by airline companies based on commercial considerations, said AAI.
The court will consider the AAI response in the next hearing of the petition on Friday.
The petition, filed by P G Najpande and Rajat Bhargava of Nagrik Upbhokta Marhdarshak Manch, said that Jabalpur earlier had flights to Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. The air connectivity of Jabalpur was as good as Indore, Gwalior, and Bhopal. On average, 15 flights operated from Jabalpur, which has now reduced to 5. Poor air connectivity of Jabalpur is also obstructing the development of Jabalpur, they alleged.
The civil aviation ministry, director general of civil aviation, and Airport Authority of India were parties in the petition. The court, however, asked the petitioners to include the private airline companies operating in India as respondents in the petition. In the previous hearing of the case, the bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf had issued notices to 4 airline companies through email seeking a response to the petition.
