Ten years on from the launch of India’s regional connectivity scheme, provincial airports account for 58% of India’s total airports, but carry just 2-3% of domestic traffic.
Airports opened under the Indian government’s regional connectivity scheme UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) include Mysuru, Porbandar, Jorhat, and Shimla. According to a new report from research and analytics platform Crisil Intelligence released last Thursday, these airports have a disproportionate share of the market compared to how many travelers go through them.
Indian authorities clearly see potential in this, though, as it announced just this March a second phase of the scheme, giving it a capital outlay of INR 288.4 billion ($3.1 billion) for 10 years to develop 100 airports and 200 helipads to boost regional air connectivity in underserved and unserved areas.
“Under UDAN 1.0, connectivity gaps across all the length and breadth of the country were progressively ad