Pune: The Centre’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), popularly called UDAN, has failed to take off from the city airport.
Officially launched in 2016, the scheme has established air connectivity to many unserved and underserved airports across the country. But the scenario in Pune is not promising.
“The airlines that are supposed to start flights as part of the scheme from Pune are yet to file for slots. Air Deccan had started its Pune-Nashik flight in 2017. But it stopped its operations late last year. No other flight has become operational till now,” an airport official said.
“One of the main reasons for this is lack of slots. The preferred slot for an UDAN flight is during the day. But a daytime slot at the Pune airport is difficult for the time being,” the official said.
Pune got five flights in the three rounds of UDAN. In the final bid of the scheme’s third phase, called UDAN 3.0, Alliance Air and SpiceJet had won the routes from Pune to Belagavi and Bhavnagar, respectively.
In the first two rounds, the airport got three flights — one each to Nashik (Air Deccan), Hubli (Star Airlines) and Allahabad (IndiGo). The Pune-Sindhudurg sector would be up for the interested airlines as part of UDAN 3.1 to be finalized soon, the official said. “The Pune-Nashik route is also part of the programme,” he added.
Airport director Ajay Kumar had said earlier this month that the schedule for all the flights was yet to be finalized. On the suspended Pune-Nashik flight, he had said that the route was “still alive” and some other airline was expected to pick it up.
17/02/19 Joy Sengupta/Times of India
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Officially launched in 2016, the scheme has established air connectivity to many unserved and underserved airports across the country. But the scenario in Pune is not promising.
“The airlines that are supposed to start flights as part of the scheme from Pune are yet to file for slots. Air Deccan had started its Pune-Nashik flight in 2017. But it stopped its operations late last year. No other flight has become operational till now,” an airport official said.
“One of the main reasons for this is lack of slots. The preferred slot for an UDAN flight is during the day. But a daytime slot at the Pune airport is difficult for the time being,” the official said.
Pune got five flights in the three rounds of UDAN. In the final bid of the scheme’s third phase, called UDAN 3.0, Alliance Air and SpiceJet had won the routes from Pune to Belagavi and Bhavnagar, respectively.
In the first two rounds, the airport got three flights — one each to Nashik (Air Deccan), Hubli (Star Airlines) and Allahabad (IndiGo). The Pune-Sindhudurg sector would be up for the interested airlines as part of UDAN 3.1 to be finalized soon, the official said. “The Pune-Nashik route is also part of the programme,” he added.
Airport director Ajay Kumar had said earlier this month that the schedule for all the flights was yet to be finalized. On the suspended Pune-Nashik flight, he had said that the route was “still alive” and some other airline was expected to pick it up.
17/02/19 Joy Sengupta/Times of India
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