The number of airports to which regular flights will soon start operating will touch 118 from 75 at present as operators are keen to start flights to 43 more airports to which there are no flights at the moment, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation said on Thursday.

“UDAN is a game changer and a step changer for Indian aviation. Today we have about 75 operational airports. Through the bids that we have received, it appears that 43 new airports will be joining the aviation network once UDAN becomes operational in a month or two,” the minister said.

UDAN is a new scheme through which the government hopes to make flying viable to tier II and III cities for the common man. A clearer picture is likely to emerge on February 3 when the government selects the bids for operations on these routes. S

The scheme will open up 43 new airports. Thirty currently served airports, 12 underserved airports and 50 unserved airports will be covered under UDAN.

Scheme launch An airport at which there are no more than seven scheduled commercial flight departures a week is termed an underserved airport while an ‘unserved airport’ is any airport at which there have been no scheduled commercial flights during the last two flight schedules approved by the DGCA.

The minister expressed confidence that UDAN scheme can take off in February itself as underserved airports are also being covered under the scheme. “Pant Nagar is a good example. We already have flights there. We already have service from Delhi and Pant Nagar and Dehra Dun can open up . These kinds of services can be started very quickly and we expect some to start in February itself,” he said.

Geographical spread Besides, there are airports such as Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Jalgoan and Akola that are “ready to go” for which bids have been received and as soon as operators get their permits and certifications, these airports can be activated, Sinha said. The minister indicated that there was a good geographical spread for the proposals with 16 airports in South India are proposed to be connected, while 32 airports in the western region, 12 in eastern region and 11 in north-eastern region too are proposed to be connected.

In South India, proposals have been received for operations to seven served airports, seven unserved and two underserved airports.

They include proposals for two served airports and four underserved airports in Karnataka and three unserved airports and one served airports in Tamil Nadu.

In Tamil Nadu the airports for which interest has been shown include Hosur, Neyveli and Salem. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana are among the states for which proposals have been received.

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