(a) the number of airports developed and made operational by the Government in small cities during the last three years;
(b) whether flights from all these airports have started and if so, the details thereof;
(c) if not, the details of airports from where the regular flight is yet to start; and
(d) the time by which regular flights from all these airports are likely to be operationalised?
The Minister of State (IC) in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION
(Shri Hardeep Singh Puri)
(a) to (d): Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) - UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) on 21-10-2016 to stimulate regional air connectivity from unserved and underserved airports in the country and making air travel affordable to the masses. Under UDAN, after four rounds of bidding, 110 RCS airports including 12 water aerodromes & 33 Helipads have been identified for operation of RCS flights. As on 27-01-2021, 311 RCS routes have already commenced connecting 47 RCS airports, 2 water aerodromes & 5 heliports. During the years 2018 to 2020, operation commenced from 37 airports/water aerodromes /helipads. UDAN is market driven scheme. The interested airlines based on their assessment of demand on particular routes submit their proposals at the time of bidding under RCS - UDAN from time to time.