UDAN passenger count nosedives

The much-hyped journey from Hawai chappal to Hawai Jahaj (rubber slippers to aeroplanes) has hit a massive air pocket. As the government’s regional connectivity scheme – UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) – completes nine years (it was launched in 2016 though the first flight took off a year later), passenger count has slumped by more than half in FY25 from the peak seen just three years earlier.

A dream that’s losing altitude

Only 1.41 million passengers availed the benefit, a drop of 57% compared to the peak of 3.3 million clocked in FY22, and a 24% drop compared to FY24’s total of 1.87 million. FY25 marked three consecutive years of decline in passenger count for the scheme.