A memo sent to the IA General Manager (Commercial) this month takes note of the Jet Airways venture to introduce a daily Delhi-Chandigarh flight before the end on the year. The memo also cautions against loss of a sizable chunk of passenger traffic and revenue in case the private airline starts operations on this circuit. Presently, the earlier thrice-weekly IA operations in the City have been reduced to two days a week, with flights being operated on the Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar-Delhi circuit. It has also been suggested that this flight be restricted to the Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi circuit only.

Passenger traffic reportedly dropped after this circuit was introduced as it takes a longer time flying to Delhi via Amritsar.

The memo also takes note of the poor time performance of IA flights and non-utilization of an aircraft's full capacity. The recently-introduced Airbus on this sector has a capacity of 145 passengers, but on an average the passenger strength is reported to be 75.

Earlier, a suggestion for increasing the weekly Chandigarh-Leh flight to twice a week had also sent to Delhi. One of the major shortcomings of inadequate flights and poor flight schedules is shortage of aircraft.