Bhubaneswar’s Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) will introduce direct flights to five new cities in India starting from January 1, 2023. The new routes include Indore, Dehradun, Lucknow, Jaipur, and Kochi. IndiGo will operate four flights to Indore and three to Dehradun, while Air India Express will operate thrice a week to Lucknow and Jaipur, and daily to Kochi. This will bring the total number of domestic destinations to 34, including four international locations. The airport currently sees an average of 49 flights daily, with a passenger footfall of around 7,000. Additionally, an early morning flight to Bengaluru will be introduced from January 4. The local MP, Aparajita Sarangi, has requested the Civil Aviation minister to start flights to Jammu, Surat, and Visakhapatnam and to sanction the construction of Terminal-3 at BPIA.