Fly to Kolhapur, Allahabad at lower fares soon

BENGALURU: Flight services from Bengaluru to smaller cities like Kolhapur and Nasik are all set to begin under the second phase of the Centre’s regional connectivity scheme (RCS).
Flights to Kolhapur and Nashik, both in Maharashtra, Allahabad in UP and Salem in Tamil Nadu are likely to commence operations in the beginning of August. Fares under the scheme will be capped at Rs 2,500 for a one-hour flight.
Under phase II of RCS, popularly known as UDAN, Airports Authority of India (AAI) has set deadlines for flights to be operated to small towns across the country.While the Bengaluru-Kolhapur route has been awarded to Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, the Nasik and Allahabad routes will be operated by Indigo.
Air Odisha has been selected to operate on the Bengaluru-Salem route by August. SpiceJet and Indigo have been chosen for the Bengaluru-Kannur route. However, Kannur airport, which is to be opened in September, is not keen on being included under the UDAN scheme, fearing it’s revenue would be affected as the operator can’t impose landing and parking fees from flights operated under the UDAN scheme.
SpiceJet will operate on the Bengaluru-Sholapur (Maharashtra) route by this year-end. It will also operate flights on the Bengaluru-Darbhanga (Bihar) route by March. Turbo Aviation will start operations on Bengaluru-Baldota/Koppal and Bengaluru-Vellore routes by December 2019.
AAI officials said these routes were awarded to the airlines during the second round of bidding for UDAN flights. “We are now pushing the airlines to follow these timelines to connect to smaller cities at affordable fares. Major airlines have also received routes under UDAN so they are expected to begin operations shortly,” said a senior AAI official.
Experts say proposed flights under UDAN 2 will give a fillip to industrial development and tourism.
GOOD RESPONSE
Trujet was the first airline to start operations from here under the UDAN scheme. While Trujet received two routes — Bengaluru-Vidyanagar (Ballari) and Bengaluru-Kadapa (Andhra Pradesh) under the UDAN scheme, it’s operating only the former.
“We are getting a good response from passengers on the Bengaluru-Vidyanagar route. But it’s not financially feasible to operate on the Bengaluru-Kadapa route and the same has been communicated to the civil aviation ministry,” said a Truejet spokesperson. About 50,000 passengers have travelled on the Bengaluru-Vidyanagar route so far.