Hyderabad,   Flybig, India's newest scheduled commuter airline, on Monday launched its maiden flight service from GMR Hyderabad International Airport to Maharashtra's Gondia.

The service is a UDAN initiative, which is aimed to bolster the regional connectivity to the travelers to Tier 2 and 3 cities.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd CEO Pradeep Panicker flagged off the flight.

The daily flight S9401 will depart from Hyderabad at 6.20 a.m. The return flight number S9402 will arrive at Hyderabad at 1.50 p.m.

With this service, the number of domestic destinations from the Hyderabad International Airport has reached 70. Before the outbreak of Covid-19, this number was 55.

"With the rising demand of passenger traffic since the beginning of the second quarter of 2021, we have added new domestic and international destinations from the Hyderabad International Airport. Air travel demand has grown significantly in the last couple of years. With travel bouncing back, travellers are revisiting their favourite destinations and exploring new places like never before," Panicker said.

"To cater to this travel demand there has been a constant effort to add destinations that have not been connected across India, especially from Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. Hyderabad city has the advantage of location in making this possible. As an airport operator, it gives a great deal of satisfaction that we have enabled it for those who want to fly from such remote places," he added.

Gondia, which has a large number of rice mills, is known as 'Rice City'. It is also famous for the Navegaon National Park, Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary, Kachargadh Caves, Hazra Fall, and other tourist spots in and around.

Flybig has connected Hyderabad, Gondia, and Indore. The Indore-Gondia-Hyderabad flight was flagged off on Sunday virtually by Union Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The flight reached Hyderabad from Gondia on Sunday. The flight from Hyderabad was flagged off early Monday morning.

Flybig has announced plans to rapidly increase its national footprint and operational network, by adding 3 more cities viz. Indore, Gondia and Hyderabad, taking the total number of cities in its network to 11.