Star Air began direct flights between Ahmedabad and Mundra on August 17, operating three days a week in a route launched in collaboration with Adani Airports. The service replaces a long road journey across the Kutch region with a roughly 50-minute flight, connecting one of Gujarat’s largest commercial hubs to Mundra, home to India’s largest private port.
The route, in detail
Flight S5 628 leaves Ahmedabad at 6:40 am and lands in Mundra at 7:30 am on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; the return flight, S5 629, departs Mundra in the evening and lands back in Ahmedabad around 7:30 pm, according to schedules reported by BW Businessworld Travel. Star Air, the regional airline backed by the Sanjay Ghodawat Group, flies Embraer E175 aircraft and currently serves 32 destinations across India, with plans to grow its fleet to 25 aircraft over the next three years. “The direct Ahmedabad-Mundra service is more than just a flight; it’s a strategic link between two of India’s most dynamic economic engines,” Star Air Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer Shilpa Bhatia said, per BW Businessworld Travel.
Why a port needs an airline
Mundra handles a significant share of India’s containerised cargo and functions as a key gateway for exporters across western India, but reaching it from Ahmedabad by road means crossing the Kutch region, a trip long enough to eat most of a working day each way. For port executives, shipping-line staff, customs agents, and industrialists who need to move between Ahmedabad’s corporate offices and Mundra’s terminals on short notice, that travel time has long been a genuine bottleneck rather than a minor inconvenience. A same-day return flight turns what used to require an overnight trip into a single business day.
What it means for Gujarat’s economy
This is a narrow, business-focused route rather than a mass-travel one, given the modest thrice-weekly frequency, but its significance lies in what it signals: aviation planners are treating logistics and industrial corridors, not just tourist destinations, as worth direct air connectivity. If demand holds up, it could set a template for similar short-hop routes linking Gujarat’s other industrial clusters, such as Bharuch’s petrochemical belt or Hazira’s manufacturing zone, to the state’s business capital. For now, the immediate winners are companies with regular Mundra dealings who can now avoid losing a full day to travel.
Outlook
The route’s survival will depend on load factors on a thrice-weekly schedule, and Star Air has not disclosed fares or said whether frequency could increase if bookings run strong. Watch for whether Adani Airports or Star Air add a fourth or fifth weekly flight, or extend similar short-hop connectivity to other Gujarat ports and industrial towns, in the months following this launch.
Sources: Gujarat Samachar, BW Businessworld Travel
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.