Jaisalmer NGO Creates Citizen-Airline Partnership to Sustain Air Connectivity to the City

In a unique display of solidarity stakeholders of the tourism industry in Jaisalmer have come together to create a citizen-airline partnership to ensure air-connectivity to the city is not affected by the pandemic.

On 16th January 2021 Spice Jet, the only operator to the city, had announced cancellation of its flight to and from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. The discontinuation meant a steep fall in tourist numbers to the city that is already suffering losses due to COVID 19 aftermath.

Looking at the situation, Manvendra Singh Shekhawat, President of I love Jaisalmer, a local NGO, met the Governor of Rajasthan, Mr. Kalraj Mishra. In the series of conversations with government, the NGO submitted memorandum to the Rajasthan Tourism Department, Ministry of Civil Aviation and even to the Prime Minister urging for a viable solution to the impending issue.

On the 4th of February, Jaisalmer Vikas Samiti, the district administration of Jaisalmer and Spice Jet finally signed MOU to ensure unhindered flight connectivity to the golden city. The joint initiative aims to reduce the losses to the airline by following a public-private partnership (PPP) model. The District Collector of Jaisalmer, Mr. Ashish Modi, also supported the campaign.

“It is essential to involve the stakeholders, local communities and government, to aim for collective solutions to our problems,” said Manvendra Singh Shekhawat, in a press release. “In our viable model, flight routes and frequency are planned so that people from extended regions such as Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai can reach Delhi or Ahmadabad and take the next flight to Jaisalmer.” The collaboration is the latest in the list of the social campaigns that have been anchored by the organization in the past including the largest cleanliness drive, multiple plantation drives, conservation of water bodies and their catchment areas and protecting local art and culture, heritage and environment.

The first of this kind sustainable tourism initiative has enabled Jaisalmer to host Desert Festival (24-27 Feb 2021) that had been called off earlier. Next, the city is gearing up for 365 days tourism and 99 days summer.