SpiceJet awarded 36 new sectors under UDAN III

The airline today operates 23 flights under UDAN

SpiceJet, the country's favourite carrier and the largest regional player, was today awarded 36 new sectors under the third round of bidding for the Government of India's UDAN Scheme. Out of these 36, 02 will cater to the unserved markets of Ghazipur and Jharsuguda whereas 09 will be for underserved markets of Adampur, Agra, Belagavi, Bhavnagar, Durgapur, Gwalior, Kishangarh, Pantnagar, and Tanjore.

"UDAN has been a fabulously successful scheme which has provided unprecedented air connectivity and all credit for this goes to the present government. We have been the most enthusiastic supporter of this great initiative from the very beginning and we look forward to operating on the routes that we have been allotted today," said Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet.

SpiceJet is India's largest and most organized regional player operating a fleet of 46 Boeing MAX and NG aircraft and 27 Bombardier Q400 planes. The airline had placed an order for 50, 90-seater Q400s in 2017 of which five have already been inducted last year.

Last year, SpiceJet was awarded 20 sectors under the second round of bidding for UDAN. Out of these 20, 15 catered to unserved markets of Kannur (Kerala), Darbhanga (Bihar), Ozar (Nashik), Pakyong (Sikkim), Kishangarh (Rajasthan), Lilabari (Assam), Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu), Bokaro(Jharkhand) and Solapur (Maharashtra) whereas five were for underserved markets like Jaisalmer (Rajasthan).

In 2017, SpiceJet was awarded six proposals under the first phase of the UDAN scheme and was the only participating airline that did not seek viable gap funding from the government. SpiceJet has launched operations on all the awarded UDAN I routes.

With the recent addition of the Kolkata-Lilabari-Kolkata flight, SpiceJet now operates 23 flights under UDAN on the routes of Delhi-Kishangarh-Delhi, Kolkata-Pakyong-Kolkata, Guwahati-Pakyong-Guwahati, Mumbai-Porbandar, Mumbai-Kandla-Mumbai, Hyderabad-Puducherry-Hyderabad, Jaipur-Jaisalmer-Jaipur, Delhi-Adampur-Delhi, Ahmedabad-Jaisalmer-Ahmedabad, Surat-Jaisalmer-Surat and Delhi-Kanpur-Delhi.