PUNE: The maiden flight from Maharashtra as part of the Centre's regional connectivity scheme (RCS) is set to take off on April 2.
Officials of the Hyderabadbased Turbo Megha Airways that functions under the brand name of TruJet, will start the operations under RCS, popularly knowns as UDAN (
Udey Desh Ka Har Nagrik), and the first flight will be from
Nanded in
Marathwada to Hyderabad.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials said that with this, Maharashtra will be among the first few states to give wings to the UDAN plan.
“After the first flight from Nanded to Hyderabad, we will get into daily operations on the Nanded-Hyderabad and
Nanded-Mumbai routes. Prepara tions at the Nanded airport and elsewhere are on,“ a TruJet official told TOI on Tuesday .
“We have arranged for manpower, ground-service equipment, reservation and departure control system at the airport to handle the flights. We will operate two flights -one from Nanded to Hyderabad and the other from Nanded to Mumbai.The aircraft will have a seating capacity for 72 people. We will connect Hyderabad and Mumbai directly and Chennai and Tirupati via Hyderabad. All in frastructure facilities are provided by the local airport authorities,“ the official said.
Though attempts to contact Air Deccan officials proved futile, a source in the Bengaluru-headquartered airline said “a different team“ was handling the RCS plan and it would reveal the developments soon.
“Prime Minister
Narendra Modi will inaugurate the first RCS flight on April 27 for the Nanded-Hyderabad, DelhiShimla and Kadapa-Hyderabad sectors,“ said an AAI official.