Travellers flying out of Prayagraj airport now have a new way to make their journeys more engaging, with the Airports Authority of India rolling out a book-lending initiative called Flybrary. The facility lets passengers pick up books at no cost before boarding, giving them something meaningful to read while in the air.
Under the scheme, flyers are permitted to carry the borrowed books all the way to their destination rather than returning them immediately. They can then drop the books off at the Flybrary counter of the airport they land at, allowing the collection to move between cities over time.
The broader goal behind the initiative is to nurture a reading habit among air travellers while enabling books to circulate freely across different airports in the network. However, the program has already faced an early hiccup, with a handful of passengers failing to return the books they had borrowed shortly after the service began.
Airport officials expressed hope that increased awareness among travellers would encourage more responsible use of the facility going forward, ensuring borrowed books make their way back into circulation. The airport’s director noted that the initiative was designed to make flying a more informative and intellectually enriching experience for passengers.
Currently, the Flybrary’s shelves are stocked mainly with titles centered on yoga and spirituality. Officials are now appealing to local residents to contribute books across a wider range of genres, hoping to diversify the collection so it appeals to travellers with varied reading tastes.
In a related development for the region, Prayagraj has also been included in a state government plan to build permanent helipads at the tehsil and block levels, with five such facilities proposed for the district as part of a broader push to strengthen emergency and VVIP connectivity.