As Kolhapur–Ahmedabad flight ascended in the sky, Shubhangi Taware was thrilled. Since her childhood, she had dreamt of boarding a flight and it took thirty-five years to complete the dream. But it was not just Shubhangi, there were many others in the flight who had saved money for months to buy flight tickets.

“I was thrilled and so were others. There were people who never even dreamt of sitting on the flight. Last month, my family and I went to Ahmedabad by flight and then to went to Prayagraj. We could fly only because of the government operationalised flights in my city,” says Shubhangi, a communication professional, born and brought up in Kolhapur.

Shubhangi is one of the 80.12 lakh passengers in India who have enjoyed flights under the Union government’s UDAN. The Ministry of Civil Aviation launched Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – UDAN in October 2016 to stimulate regional air connectivity and make air travel affordable for the masses. The scheme has been designed to enable air operations on underserved/unserved airports, heliports, water aerodromes and to keep airfare affordable.

Multiple regions

Along with Kolhapur, Jalgaon, Solapur, Ozar ( Nashik), Nanded, Amravati, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Gondia airports/ airstrips have been identified under the scheme in Maharashtra. Flights are operational from Kolhapur, Jalgaon, Ozar and Nanded by Selected Airline Operators (SAOs).

Also read: Aviation industry makes steady progress, average daily fliers at 3.58 lakh

In 2020-21 about 74,476 people have boarded flights from Kolhapur to various cities including Ahmedabad, Tirupati, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Kolhapur city’s population has grown from 4.82 lakh in 2002 to 5.49 lakh in 2011 and so have people’s aspirations.

“Why only big cities and rich people should fly high?” asks Shraddha Jugale, a small entrepreneur from Kolhapur. She says that air connectivity has helped city businessmen and entrepreneurs but also common people are flying due to cheaper ticket rates.

CP Chavan a self-employed says that flight service from the city has evoked aspirations and everyone wants to fly at least once in their lifetime. “It seems that flight is within our reach now and it also gives confidence that we are no more a small city. We have an airport and operational flights,” he says.

UDAN coverage

Under the scheme, 948 valid routes have been awarded in the country out of which 395 routes connecting unserved and underserved airports have been operationalised. As of November 11, 2021, 1,55,776 flights and 80.12 lakh passengers have flown under the scheme according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation data.

Also read: A frequent flier’s tip on flying

The government supports the selected airline operators in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF). The State governments provide a 20 per cent share towards VGF for flights under the scheme.

“UDAN is a market-driven scheme,” the Ministry told Lok Sabha early this month. “Development of regional air connectivity routes is left to market forces. Interested airlines based on their assessment of demand on particular routes submit proposals at the time of bidding under RCS-UDAN,” the Ministry added.

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