Imphal-Silchar flights return Nov 24: what the air link means for Jiribam

Manipur and southern Assam will be linked by air again from Tuesday, November 24, when Alliance Air restarts flights between Imphal and Silchar. The route has had no scheduled service since November 2025.

Imphal Airport announced the restart in a Facebook post on Sunday, November 15. It said the Imphal-Silchar-Imphal service would run under the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) scheme "with a frequency of two days a week, every Tuesday and Thursday", and called it "a positive step towards strengthening regional air connectivity." The Assam Tribune and The Hindu also carried the announcement, quoting airport officials.

The schedule

According to Alliance Air's revised winter schedule, as reported by The News Mill:

• 9I731 leaves Imphal at 8.35 am and lands in Silchar at 9.30 am
• 9I732 leaves Silchar at 9.55 am and lands in Imphal at 10.45 am
• both flights use ATR 72 turboprops
• the schedule currently lists the flights from November 24 to December 31, 2026

On the same two days, the airline's Guwahati-Imphal flight 9I949 will leave Guwahati earlier, at 7.05 am, reaching Imphal at 8.10 am. Fares had not been published in the airport's announcement.

Why this short hop matters to Jiribam

On a map, Imphal and Silchar are close. By road, they are not. Jiribam, the Manipur district headquarters on the Assam border, is about 220 km west of Imphal across mountain country, according to The Assam Tribune. It is much nearer to Silchar. Many Jiribam residents travel to Silchar's Kumbhirgram airport and fly or connect onward from there rather than make the long road trip to their own state capital.

When Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh wrote to Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu in February seeking the route back under the UDAN regional connectivity scheme, he called it a lifeline for Jiribam, KRC Times reported. He said students, patients, officials and business people had relied on it for quick, affordable travel, and that the law and order situation made the air link more important, not less. He also said the sector had run at passenger load factors above 80% before it was suspended.

The security context is real. Jiribam has been one of the flashpoints of Manipur's conflict, and when the Centre sent extra forces into the state last month, Jiribam was first in line.

A route that keeps stopping and starting

The route has been lost and won back before. In May 2014, The Telegraph reported that Alliance Air was withdrawing its ATR flights from Silchar, Guwahati and Imphal, including a Silchar-Imphal hop that took about 20 minutes. It cited Air India sources as saying the DoNER ministry could not keep subsidising the operating costs. In 2018, then Chief Minister N Biren Singh told the Assembly that the state was pressing airlines to bring the service back.

After years of lobbying, it returned on October 30, 2022. KRC Times reported at the time that Alliance Air would fly it daily with an ATR 72, and noted that hundreds of students from Manipur study in Silchar. That service ended in November 2025.

The new timetable is thinner: two days a week, not daily. Because it is VGF-backed, its future depends on that support continuing. UDAN, launched in October 2016 to make flying affordable to smaller cities, pays airlines viability gap funding to keep thin routes running.

Part of a wider connectivity patch-up

The flights are one of several fixes Manipur is attempting for its remote districts.

• Helicopters: The state's helicopter service to hill and remote areas has been suspended since October 1. On October 22, the cabinet approved hiring Pawan Hans for one twin-engine helicopter for six months, or until a regular operator is picked by tender, with at least 40 flying hours a month. The Economic Times reported that the cost will be shared with the Home Ministry under its North East helicopter scheme, and that the state will pay if central support does not come through. IANS noted that under the scheme, the ministry usually bears 75% of operating costs.
• Rail: After reviewing the Jiribam-Imphal railway on November 13, the Chief Minister said 55 km of the 110-km line is complete up to Khongsang in Tamenglong, UNI and Organiser reported. The next 9 km, to Awangkhul, is expected this month. Northeast Frontier Railway's February 2026 schedule targets Noney by December 2027 and the final Noney-Imphal stretch by June 2029.

Until that railway reaches Imphal, a 50-minute flight twice a week is the fastest way between Manipur's capital and the Barak Valley.

What to watch

• Whether Alliance Air extends the schedule beyond December 31 and adds days if loads stay high
• Fares, and whether seats are offered at UDAN-capped prices
• When the Pawan Hans helicopter actually starts flying to Jiribam and the hill districts