Airlines News Udan for Affordable Flying

To make travel by air more accessible to everyone, the central government has launched a scheme called UDAN where fares on select routes are capped at â&sbquo¹ 2,500 per hour of flying. Some of the unserved airports in the country will be pressed into service, thus easing connectivity between small but important towns. Some of the unserved airports which may see flights under UDAN include Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Jamshedpur, Jalgaon, Akola, Kandla, Puducherry, Bhatinda, Cooch Behar and Bilaspur. Five airlines have been selected through a bidding process to run the flights. They are Alliance Air, Air Odisha, Turbo Megha Airways, Air Deccan and SpiceJet. According to media reports, the seating capacity of airlines under the scheme will range from 19 to 78, and 50 percent of the seats in every flight will have a fare cap of â&sbquo¹ 2,500 per seat per hour.

The Delhi-Shimla flight will be operated five days a week. It will be operated by Alliance Air, a subsidiary of the national carrier Air India. TruJet, part of Turbo Megha Airways, will launch services on three new routes&ndashHyderabad-Cuddapah, Hyderabad-Nanded and Nanded-Mumbai routes.