4  years  on, UDAN plan struggles  to exit turbulence

NEW DELHI : India’s ambitious aim to link its smaller towns and cities to the wider air travel network through the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) is struggling about four years after it was kicked off.

Only about 40% of the routes awarded so far are active, with airlines shying away from using most of the routes, wary of inadequate infrastructure and low demand.

Their concerns have mounted with covid severely denting demand.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI), the state-run airport operator, has so far held four rounds of bidding under RCS, which was christened UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) by the government.