First Ever "Made In India" Civil Dornier Aircraft To Start Flying Today

The first-ever "Made in India" civil dornier aircraft will start flying from today and will provide air connectivity to remote towns of Arunachal Pradesh. 

In what would be a red letter day in the history of Indian aviation, this will further boost air connectivity of North Eastern Region with the rest of the country.

The first ever "Made in India" 17-seater dornier aircraft would be pressed into its maiden service linking five remote towns of Arunachal Pradesh to Assam's Dibrugarh.

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has approved a Scheme- "Providing air connectivity and Aviation infrastructure in North Eastern Region (NER)" to promote air connectivity in the states of North Eastern Region and, if requires, to develop infrastructure for air connectivity. 

As a part of this scheme, two important development will take place on tomorrow - First flight of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) - Made in India- Dornier Do-228 from Dibrugarh in Assam to Pasighat town in Arunachal Pradesh by Alliance Air, making it India's only first commercial airline to fly Indian made aircraft for civil operations and inauguration of first FTO (Flying Training Organization) for North Eastern Region at Lilabari, Assam.

Both events will attended by the Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia and the Chief Ministers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Pema Khandu will also be present.

According to HAL sources, the 17-seater non-pressurized Dornier 228 with an AC cabin is capable of day and night operations. The light transport aircraft will facilitate regional connectivity in northeastern states. 

These two aircraft were handed over to Alliance Air on last Thursday and one has been shifted to Dibrugarh airport, the newest hub for Alliance air. 

The aircrafts will be used to give air connectivity to remote places of eastern Arunachal Pradesh including some areas close to China and Myanmar borders. 

The Advanced Landing Grounds ( ALG) maintained by Indian Air Force will be used for landing, official added.  

Alliance Air will initially be flying from Dibrugarh to Pasighat. And in the next 15 to 20 days, it will fly to Tezu and then to Ziro, both towns in Arunachal Pradesh. All of this will happen in the first phase.

In the second phase, it will connect Vijaynagar, Mechuka, Along and other places will be linked, a top official of Ministry of civil aviation said.

All these places in eastern Arunachal Pradesh needed 1-5 days of travel to reach the nearest airports of Dibrugarh and Lilabari in Assam, officials further added. 

Development of North Eastern Region (NER) is not only of strategic importance, but, is a part of India's growth story. Connectivity in North Eastern Region is very essential and Under "Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN)", the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has identified North Eastern Region as a priority area. This has helped in enhancing inter and intra connectivity for the North Eastern Region. 

In this regard, new airports are getting developed and old airports are getting upgraded. Considering the hilly terrain, helicopter operations under UDAN scheme have been given focus for connectivity.

Dornier is originally a german aircraft first deployed by the long-defunct regional airline Vayudoot to service over 100 airports across India till the early 1990s.

In 1981, HAL acquired the production license for the aircraft from the manufacturers and assembled 125 of them at its Kanpur facility for both civilian and military purposes. 

Since 2009, Swiss aerospace engineering and defence company RUAG has been manufacturing the upgraded Do-228 New Generation (NG), with the fuselage, wings and tail being sourced from HAL.

The Dornier 228 NG used for commercial operations is the first aircraft made entirely in the country. It is a far improved version as compared to its predecessors.