15 UDAN Airports Temporarily Non-Operational: Govt

New Delhi, Dec 1 (PTI) A total of 15 airports under the regional air connectivity scheme UDAN are temporarily non-operational now due to various reasons, including low passenger loads in flights, according to the government.

Under the Regional Connectivity Scheme - Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN), 651 routes connecting 93 unserved and underserved airports, including 15 heliports and two water aerodromes, were operationalised.

"At present, fifteen airports, namely Pathankot, Pakyong, Kushinagar, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Shravasti, Moradabad, Bhavnagar, Ambikapur, Rourkela, Ludhiana, Datia, Kalaburagi and Shimla are temporarily non-operational under the UDAN scheme...," Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha on Monday.

He cited completion of the three-year VGF (Viability Gap Funding) tenure, poor visibility conditions at VFR (Visual Flight Rules) airports, daytime runway closures, shortage of aircraft, leasing issues, temporary discontinuation of operations by the airline concerned, novation of contractual obligations to other operators, and low passenger load factors as among the reasons.

In another written reply, the minister said that during the last five years, 11 airports were inaugurated in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar, and out of them, only four have scheduled flight operations now.

Airports in Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh) were inaugurated in 2021, Deoghar (Jharkhand) in 2022, Kanpur and Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) in 2023, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Moradabad, Shravasti and Sarsawa (Uttar Pradesh) in 2024 and Purnea (Bihar) in 2025.

"Out of the above airports, scheduled flights are presently operational at Deoghar in Jharkhand, Kanpur and Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh and Purnea in Bihar.

"The rest of the airports do not have scheduled flight operations as on date," the minister said.