RCS-UDAN

STAR AIR FLAGS OFF FLIGHT BETWEEN HINDON- KALABURAGI SECTOR; WITNESS OVERWHELMING RESPONSE ON THE INAUGURAL DAY  

• BY VISHAL KASHYAP

India’s one of the newest regional commuter airlines, Star Air flagged off its flight operations in 16^th RCS-UDAN (Regional Connectivity Scheme) routes on 18^th Nov 2020 with new sector Hindon( Ghaziabad ) and Kalaburagi (Gulbarga) in Karnataka. The inaugural sector had onboard Mr. Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) as the chief guest travelling as the first passenger. Also, present were the key officials of Airports Authority of India (AAI). The both sector from Kalaburagi-Hindon-Kalaburagi witnessed overwhelming response from the passengers.

The commencement of the flight operations on the Kalaburagi – Delhi (Hindon) route is in line with the commitment and perseverance of MoCA and AAI to enable the country with better air connectivity under the UDAN scheme. Till date, 295 routes and 53 airports including 5 heliports and 2 Water Aerodromes have been operationalized under the UDAN scheme.

Star Air was awarded the Kalaburagi – Hindon route under the RCS-UDAN-3 bidding process last year. The airline will be operating three weekly flights on the route deploying its 50-seater Embraer-145 aircraft. It has under its ambit 16 routes under UDAN with the addition of the Kalaburagi – Hindon route. This flights also connects with Bengaluru with 30 minute operational halt at Kalaburagi, where new passengers check-in for the new sector. At present Star Air has 4 brand new Embraer-145 aircraft in its fleet and they have very intact strategic expansion plans with some bigger airlines having more seating capacity.

With this new sector, passengers can travel to long-distance journey of 1600 Kms in just 2-hour 20 minutes. Many people travel frequently between these two cities for personal as well as professional purposes. People from Bijapur, Solapur, Bidar, Osmanabad, Latur, Yadgir, Ranga Reddy, Medak would also receive direct benefit of the flight operations on Kalaburagi – Hindon route

Kalaburagi airport which is at a distance of 13.8kms from the Kalaburagi city too been operationalized under UDAN to boost the aerial connectivity of Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities of the country. Kalaburagi which is known for its culture and is a gateway for tourist destinations including Buddha Vihar, Sharana Basaveshwara Temple, Khwaja Banda Nawaz Dargah and, Gulbarga Fort is now connected with the capital city Delhi with direct flights for the first time. This will act as a catalyst to boost the trade & tourism of the region.

Star Air is a Scheduled Commercial Airline with an aim to connect pan India. It is the aviation arm of strategically diversified Sanjay Ghodawat Group (SGG), which is present in several high value industry segments.

The flight schedule is mentioned below:

The writer has travelled with Star Air on the inaugural flight between Delhi- Kalaburagi-Bengaluru sectors on 18^th Nov. 2020.First published in Aviation World web.