Kalaburagi Airport Karnataka begins operation-all you need to know

Karnataka got a new airport today, at Kalaburgi in northern Karnataka. This post is a quick round up of all the information available w.r.t Kalaburgi airport

Where is Kalaburagi?
Kalaburgi (ಕನ್ನಡ: ಕಲಬುರಗಿ ) is also known as Gulbarga airport is in the northern tip of Karnataka between Bidar and Bijapura. Kalaburagi airport is some 13 kms from Gulbarga town, just 200 kms from Telangana Capital Hyderabad and some 550 kms from State capital Bengaluru.

Why Kalaburagi airport is important?
Because of long distance from state capital Bengaluru, people of Gulbarga and nearby districts have to spend a long time on bus/train journey to reach Bengaluru or any other metro. Flight connectivity at reasonable price will give a big boost to travelers in the region.

Karnataka doesn't have many active airports. Except Bengaluru, (BLR) next most active airport in Mangaluru (IXE). There are a few more airports- Mysuru, Hubli, Belagavi, Vijayanagara (near Hampi) etc but these have barely a few flights per day- not even half a dozen. Compared to this neighboring states like TN (Madhurai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Salem, Tuticorin etc), Kerala have more airports and more flights. Kalaburagi becomes another airport on the list having scheduled flights under UDAN scheme, hopefully it grows further.

So who is flying to Kalaburagi?
Right now only Star Air has announced three times a week flight between Kalaburagi and Bengaluru. Ticket prices start at around INR 3000, which is reasonable, considering an AC bus between two cities easily costs INR 800-1500 depending on day of the week and type of bus. For just twice the price, saving of 8-9 hours of journey time is very good option for most.

Also Star Air is not selling one stop ticket to other destinations on its network- such as Delhi Hindon from Kalaburagi yet.

No word yet from other airlines like Indigo or Spicejet or Alliance air about any flight to Kalaburagi. Most OTAs such as Skyscanner don't even recognize Kalaburagi airport code. We have to wait and see how successful this route will be.

What is there to see near Kalaburagi?
If you fly to Kalaburagi, keeping Gulbarga as a base you can visit Vijapur Gol Bumbaz (160 kms), Bidar (130 kms), Mantralaya (200 kms), Solhapur (140 kms) etc.

We wish lots of success to Star Air and Kalaburagi airport. More about the airport on Wikipedia here

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