You can take a flight to Shirdi from second week of October

The Shirdi airport will be operational next month after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday issued an aerodrome license for public use during the day.

The airport will conduct a test flight in the coming week. It is expected to be inaugurated by October second week, however, the airport’s operator — Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd. (MADC) — wanted to inaugurate the airport on October 1 as it marks the beginning of the centenary year of Sai Baba’s Samadhi.

A temple town, Shirdi sees around one lakh devotees on auspicious days. However, the Shirdi airport will not have a night-landing facility for few months. Until then, officials are expecting a footfall of 500 a day.

Suresh Kakani, vice-chairman, MADC, who collected the licence, said, “We have told Alliance Air about conducting a test flight. After its report is submitted to DGCA, we will receive a go ahead. We will commence the operations within first 15 days of October.” Four flights will connect Shirdi to Mumbai.