Boost To Buddhist Circuit Tourism: IndiGo To Introduce New Flights Between Kolkata-Varanasi-Gaya

In a move that will likely boost tourism and regional air connectivity in Eastern India, no-frills carrier IndiGo on Thursday (13 June) announced the launch of 12 new direct daily flights on the Buddhist Circuit, bolstering the connectivity between Kolkata, Gaya and Varanasi, reports LiveMint.

The flight operations will commence from August 2019, while bookings for the routes have been opened from Thursday onwards. The routes chosen will be Kolkata-Gaya, Kolkata-Patna, Kolkata-Varanasi and Gaya-Varanasi, with additional frequency emphasised on Kolkata-Varanasi route.

Regarding the Buddhist Circuit, the chief executive officer at Indigo, Ronojoy Dutta had earlier said, "It has never been done before. And we are connecting it to both Kolkata and New Delhi. We expect to really boost tourism into those markets."

It should be noted that the new flights will help attract more tourist arrivals to the Buddhist spirituality hubs from and around the South East Asia, where IndiGo is fast expanding its presence by adding new routes to Kolkata, including services from Vietnam, Hong Kong and China.