Following IndiGo's inaugural flight from Delhi to Deoghar on Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has announced that the state of Jharkhand will see three new airports. The expansion will see the state now host five airports, up from just one last week, as the government makes a push to make air travel accessible to the population.

Regional connectivity a focus

In a statement seen by Business Standard, India's Civil Aviation Minister announced three more airport projects in the eastern state of Jharkhand. Until this week, the state only had one airport in the capital of Ranchi, but the government has made it clear that it wants to connect all population centers of the country to main hubs through UDAN-RCS (regional connectivity scheme).

Jamshedpur, Bokaro, and Dumka will also see new facilities constructed on their nonactive airfields. A timeline for the project has not been announced, with the airports first listed as options in 2018. However, given the rapid pace at which flights are starting across India, we can expect to see scheduled flights reasonably quickly.

Dumka will see connections to the capital Ranchi and neighboring hub Kolkata, while Bokaro will see flights to Patna and Kolkata. Scindia did not mention which airline has won the bid to operate these routes yet, a process that will be finalized closer to the start of operations.

Deoghar calling

While the Civil Aviation Minister looks to the future, Deoghar (DGH) is currently the country's newest commercial airport. IndiGo flight 6E 6191 is scheduled to leave Delhi's IGI Airport at 13:00 and arrive in DGH at 14:45 local time, operating daily. The return flight departs at 15:15 and lands in DEL at 17:20.

The first flight, on an A320neo, was inaugurated by various government officials, to much fanfare, and was co-captained by BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

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Photo: Akshay Mantri 

Three weeks ago, IndiGo flew the airport's first commercial flight in years on its new Kolkata (CCU)-DGH service. This route will operate four times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday), leaving CCU at 14:55 and landing at 16:15. The return service leaves DGH at 16:35 and arrives at 17:50.

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UDAN-RCS

New routes aren't always popular, especially out of an entirely new airport. To support carriers in times of low traffic, UDAN-RCS includes a viability funding gap to maintain connectivity for at least three years. This is in addition to concessions like lower taxes, no landing fees, and greater operational control for airlines to manage schedules. If even after that airlines are unable to attract customers, routes may be withdrawn in the future.

Currently, the project has operationalized 68 airports and aerodromes across the country, opening 425 new routes. However, that is nowhere near the eventual target of creating 1,000s for new airports across India.

Source: Business Standard