If air connectivity is meant to drive regional development, UDAN is struggling for lift-off

If air connectivity is meant to drive regional development, UDAN is struggling for a lift-off. Launched in 2016 to make flying affordable and link smaller towns, GoI's Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik programme reportedly now has 11 airports developed under it grounded - seven in UP, and the rest in Gujarat, Punjab, MP and Sikkim. Some never saw a single commercial flight.

While airports must come first, then airlines, and finally passengers, UDAN's troubles stem from a mismatch between policy ambition and poor understanding of actual demand. Big airlines have little incentive to join a system weighed down by fare caps and low passenger volumes. Smaller operators lack the financial resilience to survive even a week's disruption.

In many regions, expanding rail networks and improved roads offer faster (given the time taken in airport security and clearances), cheaper and more reliable travel, making air routes redundant before they even begin. The irony deepens in places like Kargil, where there is genuine demand for an airport.


Residents remain cut off for months in winter, but repeated GoI assurances have been stuck in bureaucratic holding patterns. India's private aviation culture, long dormant, is only now taking off, but it will take time to reach smaller regional airports.

In this year's budget, GoI announced a modified UDAN - promising 120 new destinations and 4 cr additional passengers over the next decade. But announcements alone don't make airports fly. Without a fundamental rethink, UDAN 2.0 risks creating more grounded runways, turning airports into white elephants, diverting crucial funds from other essential infrastructure.