Flyers demand more flights under Regional Connectivity Scheme from Pune airport
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Pune: Fifty-four-year-old Manas Kulkarni, a farmer and resident of Vivare Budruk village in Jalgaon, had become accustomed to travelling around 450km by road to meet his wife and son living in the city's Karvenagar area, ending up spending over Rs8,000 on a one-way trip till early 2024.
"More than the money spent, it was the road travel by car taking around 12 hours that was taxing each time. But things changed after a Pune-Jalgaon FLY91 flight started on May 25 last year. Now, for Rs4,000-5,000, I get a two-way ticket between the destinations, reducing my journey stress by 95%. I reach my family within around five hours compared to the earlier 12 hours. After this flight began under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), I have flown on it at least 50 times already.
It has been a boon," Kulkarni told TOI.
On the flipside, Shivajinagar resident Bhavesh Jog is displeased. "Until Dec 2024, Pune airport had a direct flight connecting to Bhavnagar under the RCS. However, this flight suddenly stopped, leading to major hassles. My house is in Bhavnagar, and now I have to go either by train or bus. This is very tiring. I urge the airport authorities to encourage airlines to participate in RCS routes, including to Bhavnagar," said the working professional.
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Govt's RCS flights, also known as the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) programme, were launched in 2016 to improve air travel connectivity to and from unserved airports and make these more affordable for the public. While appreciated by users, the scheme's implementation has already faced a multitude of operational challenges.
At present, Pune airport records a total of four such flights (eight movements in total) under the RCS — down from six flights (12 movements in total) as of late last year.
Now, many flyers have demanded that RCS flights, connecting lesser-known cities to bigger ones, should be in focus again.
A Pune airport official admitted to TOI, "We have always been encouraging airlines to start more flights from our facility, and we do have slots for these. This includes RCS flights. Airlines decide on routes based on their calculations, but we encourage them to start RCS flights."
Until last year, Pune was connected to smaller cities like Kishangarh, Nanded, Sindhudurg, Jalgaon, Prayagraj, and Bhavnagar via RCS flights.
At present, these flights go only to Sindhudurg, Nanded, Jalgaon, and Kishangarh.
"Maharashtra has among the highest number of unserved and under-served airports and airstrips in the country. Some steps need to be taken to connect them to bigger cities like Pune and Mumbai under RCS. It will be very helpful for many passengers who struggle to travel to bigger cities," aviation expert Deepak Shastri had earlier told TOI.
The Maharashtra Airport Development Company Limited (MADC) is the nodal agency for the RCS scheme in the state. Swati Pandey, vice chairman and managing director of MADC, told TOI that nine airports fall under the scheme for now — Amravati, Gondia, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Solapur, Nanded, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, and Nashik.
"While Ratnagiri airport is still under construction, we have decided to develop airports in Baramati and Karad into RCS facilities.
In the next two years, both these airports will be operationalised," the senior official said.
In June, Pune airport reportedly got 15 new slots between 6am and 10.30 pm. Now, the facility has 220 slots, of which 208 are occupied, leaving 27 slots up for grabs.
"Airlines cannot run RCS flights during late-night hours or on red-eye flights. These flights have to be during the daytime to gain passenger traffic. These new slots are welcome, and one can consider RCS flights on them after the monsoon," an airline representative told TOI, choosing anonymity.
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