In August, flights to smaller towns would take off from Chennai city
Posted on: 28/Jul/2018 9:47:04 AM
Under the regional connectivity scheme, air travel from Chennai to places like Puducherry, Salem, Neyveli, Kadapa, Mysuru etc would be boosted. It is said that in the month of August the flights to the above mentioned places would take off from Chennai. Deadlines for the flights to smaller towns have been set. This was as per the report on the regional connectivity scheme Udan. By the end of this 2018, Airport Authority of India or AAI would fly more flights to small towns. So don’t be surprised to see flight from Chennai to Kannur in the month of December.
In the month of January the flight services to places like Thanjavur and Vellore should have started and is expected to be delayed further. A new deadline for starting services at these airports was not set by AAI. Since the airport is not ready the flights to Neyveli would take some more time. It was brought out that the airstrip and campus are ready but still some more work has to be done to make the airport fit so that the flights could be received.
In the month of December, IndiGo flights would be launched on the Chennai-Kannur route. It is important to mention here that the Spicejet flights were scheduled for January 2017 itself and since the airport was not ready the flights could not be started. It is clear now that Kannur airport would be ready in another 2 or 3 months of time.
As per the Udan report of AAI, the Thanjavur flights by Spicejet were scheduled for the month of January. During the second round of bidding for Udan flights these routes were awarded to these flights. In this second phase of bidding low cost carriers had garnered most routes.
Under the phase 1 of regional connectivity scheme, the routes to Puducherry, Salem, Neyveli, Kadapa and Mysuru were given to AirOdisha but could not be commissioned. The reason for that is either airports being not ready or airlines being not ready.
Many Udan routes awarded in the first round of bidding in the month of July in 2017 were taken up by new airlines. Lot of time was taken by these new airlines to arrange planes and to start the operations.
In the month of January in 2018, routes were awarded in the second round of bidding and these routes have taken up by the professionally run low cost carriers like IndiGo, Spicejet etc. Soon there would be flight operations. There were also few flight services to smaller towns without including under Udan scheme. As a result of this air travel between small cities has been boosted. This was confirmed by a senior official belonging to AAI.
In the southern regions, the regional connectivity scheme has taken off well after the flight services were launched last year to places like Mysuru, Salem, Kadapa, Hubli etc. There would be more flights to small towns located in the south as the money of Rs 113 crores earmarked for viability gap funding to encourage airlines to fly is more for southern region.
