CHENNAI: The tourism ministry has suggested the inclusion of airports in close proximity to the popular tourist destinations, under the Udan (Udey Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme, which aims at promoting regional connectivity.
"The tourism ministry has sent a proposal to the Civil Aviation Ministry for the inclusion of some of the airports located at famous tourist destinations to ensure air connectivity at cheaper rates and thereby benefit the tourists," an official said.
The Udan scheme is a regional airport development and air connectivity scheme initiated by the Central government to make flying affordable for common people of the country.
According to sources as nearly 80 per cent of the foreign exchange earnings come through the tour operators across the country the government could facilitate a meeting between the tour operators and airlines and chalk out a plan to include the viable destinations.
Meanwhile, the low-cost carrier Spicejet has announced a new International flight connecting Hyderabad to Colombo. It will also operate domestic flights connecting Chennai with Patna and Surat as well as six new flights under the Udan scheme. The direct flights on the Hyderabad-Colombo route will start from April 15 while the domestic flights will be operated from March 31.
Also, the budget carrier has announced four new daily direct flights connecting Chennai with Patna and Surat. This makes Spicejet the first such airline to operate flights on the Chennai-Patna route. Six new flights will also be introduced connecting Kishangarh-Ahmedabad, Lakhimpur-Guwahati and Jaipur-Amritsar route. These routes were reportedly rewarded to Spicejet under the third round of the regional connectivity scheme.
