The first international flight will be the Indian Airlines Lucknow-Sharjah inaugural flight slated to take off on February 3.

The list of VIPs who will fly free on that flight is being personally chalked out by Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ananth Kumar. Frantic efforts are being made by ruling party MPs to get a seat. The usual trimmings of all lavish inaugural flights have already been made. The IA regional office in Sharjah has hired several limousines and taxis and booked their VVIP guests in five-star hotels.

The PM will be on hand for the functionin Lucknow after which he will perform an ``auspicious bhoomi poojan''(land prayer) for the widening of the runway. Says a PMO official: ``The PM will be present but all arrangements are being made by the Aviation Ministry.''

The PM's ``gift,'' as it is being described has already become a matter of contention between the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the state government since AAI wants the land gratis. The Kalyan Singh government, however, isn't convinced of the need to transform Amausi and is demanding Rs 6 crore for the land plus the cost of rehabilitating those who will be affected by the widening.

Sources in AAI say that they simply do not have the funds since ``this particular work was not budgeted for'' but senior AAI officials have assured the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) that the funds will come. PMO officials say that since the PM is involved, his name is being thrown around in order to hasten the pace of work but claim they are not ``directly involved at all''.

As far as theinaugural flight is concerned, the normal commercial practices of conducting a market study and basing future passenger projections on it was given the go-by. While Indian Airlines is maintaining a studied silence on the matter, according to a member of the airline's board which was sacked last month: ``The Ministry definitely did not ask us to give a report on the expected projections.''

The success of the flight to Sharjah is also expected to give a fillip to plans to turn Amausi in to an international airport. It has already been identified as a ``model airport'' in September.