Even as the eighth anniversary of high profile project of the Narendra Modi government, UDAN is fast approaching, the outcome and performance of the same is quite dismal to say the least. UDAN, the government’s regional air connectivity scheme, bears it’s name from the Hindi phrase ” Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik”, in sync with the penchant of the Prime Minister to give catchy acronyms.
The scheme which was projected to link smaller centres with air-connectivity has failed to impress so far. proclaimed as the next big revolutionary thing, the UDAN, is far from achieving it’s stated goals. In Gujarat, several routes did not materialise even after announcement. These routes are Daman-Diu, Surat Diu, Diu-Delhi, Ahmedabad- Daman, Dwarka-Surat, Surat- Statue of Unity, Mundra-Goa, Mundra-Surat, Mundra-Mumbai, Ahmedabad-Keshod and Ahmedabad -Jalgaon. The announcement was made for 56 flights from Gujarat, however, only 39 could see the day.
The Gujarat Government had also planned a sea-plane between Ahmedabad to Kevadiya, the site of the Statue of Unity. However, the route, which started in October 2020 was closed in April 2021, after wasteful spending Rs.13 crore.
The UDAN scheme faced low occupancy, closure of operational routes, and lack of infrastructure from the beginning. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) report informs that as of October 3, 2023, only 493 routes had on paper commenced operations connecting 70 destinations, even after five rounds of bidding. Out of which, only 225 routes remained operational till October 2023 as per the data based on the flight schedules of all airlines. The airlines stopped 228 routes due to lack of infrastructure and low passenger demand. Major regional airlines operating under UDAN are —StarAir, FlyBig, IndiaOne Air and Air Taxi. However, airlines like Trujet, Zoom Air, Deccan Air and Heritage Aviation have either shut down or have not started operations yet.
UDAN was launched in 2016 with an intention to bring smaller towns and cities on the country’s aviation map. The Government wished to create a new category of airlines—scheduled commuter airlines, to cater to the passengers from unserved and underserved routes. The UDAN scheme aimed to provide a cheaper alternative with the help of
a fleet of small aircraft. As per the scheme, the airlines were to make air travel accessible to all by sell 50 percent of their seats at a flat rate of Rs 2,500 per hour of flight. However, no real benefit of cheaper tickets was seen by passengers.
Last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India also pointed out that 52 percent of the awarded routes did not commence operations.
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