New Delhi (NVI): On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the first commercial passenger flight to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh operated by an all-women crew was flagged off today from the Delhi airport by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
The Bareilly airport has been upgraded for commercial flight operations under the regional connectivity scheme – Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN) of the government of India, the civil aviation ministry said in a statement.
The flagging off marks the commencement of the 56th airport under the UDAN scheme and marks the successful operationalization of the 8th airport of Uttar Pradesh after Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Hindon, Agra, and Prayagraj.
The all-woman crew operated Alliance Air’s Delhi-Bareilly inaugural flight on International Women’s Day, it added.
Alliance Air will be deploying its ATR 72-600 aircraft, which can seat around 70 passengers, on the Delhi-Bareilly route, the statement said.
Till now, the Bareilly airport did not handle commercial flight operations and was exclusively an airbase of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
The IAF handed over the land to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) a couple of years back to construct infrastructure for commercial flight operations. Now the airport will handle both IAF and commercial operations.
Under the UDAN scheme, financial incentives from the Centre, state government, and airport operators are extended to selected airlines to encourage operations from unserved and under-served airports and keep airfares affordable.
To date, 325 routes and 56 airports including 5 heliports and 2 Water Aerodromes have been operationalized under the UDAN scheme. To keep the fares accessible for the common man, financial incentives in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) is being provided under the UDAN scheme from the Centre, State governments, and airport operators to selected airlines to encourage operations from unserved and underserved airports under the scheme, the ministry stated.
-CHK
