Tag Archives: UDAN Scheme

Venkatesan Dhattareyan, Regional Director, South, West & Central, Ministry of Tourism, GOI, said, “This year the National Tourism Day celebrations will be held across the country, the flagship event being the Bharat Parv, which is being held in Delhi. Besides that, the MOT has also been stressing on promoting lesser-known destinations. If you look at UDAN scheme, which has opened a new destination with flight connections etc., we see importance in pushing such lesser-known destinations. This will also take away the pressure from the mainstream destinations and these are places, which are interesting. We are looking forward to promote lesser known destinations through various events as well.”

SpiceJet has announced a daily direct flight on the Kolkata-Lilabari route under the regional connectivity scheme, UDAN. Reiterating its focus on regional connectivity, the airline also announced a new direct flight connecting Kolkata with Jabalpur and an additional frequency on Hyderabad-Jabalpur route. All new flights and frequencies are scheduled to commence from January 15. According to a statement released by the airline, “SpiceJet is celebrating the launch by announcing an introductory promotional fare starting at Rs 3,700 on Kolkata-Lilabari and Lilabari-Kolkata routes, Rs 3,969 on Kolkata-Jabalpur and Rs 3,949 on Jabalpur-Kolkata, routes.” The primary objective of (UDAN) scheme is to connect small cities of the country at affordable fares. Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Sales and Revenue Officer, SpiceJet, said, “Lilabari is our first destination in Assam under the UDAN scheme and we are confident that the new flight will provide impetus to the tourism potential of the state.”

Air India’s Alliance Air plans to start the much-needed Jaipur-Agra flight. Madhu Methen, General Manager – Sales and Marketing, Air India, said, “Our future plan includes a Jaipur to Agra flight under the UDAN scheme. The aircraft that will be used will be an ATR. We also plan to introduce a Delhi-Bikaner direct flight on an ATR. Alliance Air will announce the dates and other details of these routes soon.”

Air India has resumed its Ludhiana-Delhi flight from the Sahnewal Airport almost three years after the flight was discontinued in 2014. The 70-seater ATR-72 plane of Alliance Air under Air India will be operational on this route. Pawan Kumar, Assistant Manager, Air Traffic Control, Sahnewal Airport, informed that the flight would be operational four days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Restarted under the UDAN (Udey Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme, 50 per cent of the 70 seats are subsidised at Rs 2,000. “Price for rest of the tickets will depend on daily demand and supply formula,” said Kumar.