UDAN Scheme Explained — Routes, Airports, How It Works for Indian Travellers

If you’ve ever wondered how small-town airports like Shillong, Jharsuguda, or Hubli suddenly have direct flights to metros, the answer is UDAN. The scheme reshaped India’s regional aviation map between 2016 and today, opening routes that were once commercially unviable. This guide explains UDAN end-to-end — full form, pricing logic, fare caps, airlines, airports, route phases, booking steps, and what’s coming next — so you can travel smarter on regional sectors.

What is UDAN? Full Form and Mission

Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik launched October 2016 to make flying affordable for ordinary citizens.

UDAN stands for “Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik,” literally “let the common citizen fly.” It’s the operational wing of India’s National Civil Aviation Policy released in 2016. The Ministry of Civil Aviation runs it through the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which acts as the implementing agency for bidding, monitoring, and viability gap funding payouts to airlines.

The mission has two parts. First, make air travel affordable on short regional sectors where train journeys take 10-18 hours. Second, revive unserved and underserved airports — places that had runways but no scheduled commercial flights. The first UDAN flight took off on 27 April 2017, connecting Shimla to Delhi.

By design, UDAN isn’t a subsidy paid directly to passengers. Airlines bid for routes, commit to fare caps on half the seats, and receive Viability Gap Funding (VGF) from a corpus called the Regional Connectivity Fund. That fund is built from a small levy on tickets for major domestic routes — so well-trafficked routes effectively cross-subsidise small ones.

How UDAN Pricing Works

Half the seats sell at a government fare cap, the rest at airline market price.

On every UDAN-designated route, the operating airline reserves a minimum of 50% of seats as “RCS seats” (Regional Connectivity Scheme seats). These seats are sold at or below a fare cap set by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, indexed to flight duration. The remaining seats are sold at the airline’s normal commercial fares.

If you book early on a UDAN route, you’re likely getting an RCS seat — the cheapest inventory the system releases first. As those fill, the airline opens the non-RCS bucket at dynamic pricing. That’s why fares on UDAN sectors can swing from very cheap to similar-to-mainline in the final days before departure.

The airline doesn’t lose money on the capped seats because the government tops up the difference between the cap and what the airline needs to break even. This top-up is called VGF and is paid per flown seat, audited by AAI on monthly utilisation data.

What Are the UDAN Fare Caps by Distance?

Roughly ₹2,500 for a 1-hour flight; capped tiers extend by distance and time.

UDAN fare caps are slab-based by either flying time or stage length (the actual flown distance). When the scheme launched, the headline cap was around ₹2,500 for flights up to one hour. Caps have since been revised mildly to account for fuel cost and operating economics, and they differ between fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

Typical fare-cap slabs (illustrative)

• Up to 30 minutes: lower band, around the ₹1,500–₹2,000 range
• 30 to 60 minutes: around the ₹2,500 anchor cap
• 60 to 90 minutes: stepped up roughly proportionally
• Helicopter sectors: separate caps based on flight time and route

Always check the airline’s website or the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s published list for the current cap on your specific sector — caps are reviewed periodically. Promotional UDAN fares you see during sales are usually within or below the cap on the RCS inventory.

Which Airlines Operate UDAN Routes?

IndiGo, SpiceJet, Star Air, Alliance Air, FlyBig, and Pratham Aviation are core UDAN carriers.

Different airlines bid for different bundles of routes during each UDAN round. Some run large operations like IndiGo and SpiceJet, while others — Star Air, Alliance Air, FlyBig, Pratham Aviation, and select helicopter operators — focus specifically on regional turboprop or small-jet sectors that mainline carriers find marginal.

Who flies what (general pattern)

• IndiGo: selected UDAN routes overlaid on its mainline network using ATR 72 turboprops
• SpiceJet: a mix of Bombardier Q400 turboprop UDAN sectors and helicopter operations
• Alliance Air: a heavy UDAN focus on North-East, Andaman & Nicobar, and remote routes using ATR aircraft
• Star Air: Embraer regional jets serving Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat sectors
• FlyBig: ATR-based connectivity in central and eastern India
• Pratham Aviation: small-aircraft regional sectors awarded in later UDAN rounds

If a particular airline withdraws from a sector — which has happened often — AAI re-bids that route in the next UDAN round so the connectivity, in theory, isn’t permanently lost.

Which Major Airports Are Connected Under UDAN?

Shillong, Aizawl, Jharsuguda, Hubli, Belagavi, Mysore, and dozens more are now on the grid.

UDAN has activated airports across categories: state capitals that had paper airports for decades (Shillong, Aizawl, Itanagar’s nearby fields), industrial towns (Jharsuguda, Durgapur), heritage destinations (Khajuraho, Bikaner), and second-tier business hubs (Hubli, Belagavi, Mysore, Kolhapur, Nashik). The scheme classifies airports into served, underserved, unserved, and water aerodromes.

Notable airports activated or revived

• North-East: Shillong (Umroi), Aizawl (Lengpui), Tezpur, Lilabari, Pakyong (Sikkim)
• East / Central: Jharsuguda, Durgapur, Jamshedpur, Bilaspur, Jabalpur, Khajuraho
• West: Kandla, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Kishangarh (Ajmer)
• South: Hubli, Belagavi, Mysore, Salem, Kannur, Vidyanagar (Bellary), Kolhapur
• North: Shimla, Kullu, Dharamshala, Pithoragarh, Pantnagar

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has officially cited that the scheme has touched 80+ regional airports and heliports since 2017, with the operational set fluctuating as routes start, pause, and re-launch through new bidding rounds.

What Does the UDAN Route Map Look Like?

Routes typically connect a Tier-2/3 city to a nearby metro or mid-size hub.

UDAN routes follow a hub-and-spoke logic. The “hub” is usually a major airport — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Guwahati, or an emerging hub like Ahmedabad — and the “spoke” is a regional airport within 90–120 minutes of flying. The aim is one-stop accessibility from any Indian metro to any UDAN spoke.

Example sector pairings (illustrative)

• Delhi ↔ Shillong, Pantnagar, Bikaner, Shimla
• Bengaluru ↔ Hubli, Belagavi, Mysore, Vidyanagar
• Mumbai ↔ Kolhapur, Nashik, Jaisalmer
• Kolkata ↔ Jharsuguda, Durgapur, Cooch Behar
• Hyderabad ↔ Kadapa, Cuddapah, Vidyanagar
• Guwahati ↔ Aizawl, Lilabari, Tezpur, Shillong

For exact current routes, check the airline schedule for your origin–destination pair, since UDAN sectors are added and dropped each phase. The route mix today is meaningfully different from the original 2017 launch.

How Has UDAN Evolved Through Phases 1 to 5?

Five rounds since 2017 have expanded scope from short hops to longer routes and helicopters.

UDAN evolves in bidding rounds, each adding new route categories or relaxing earlier rules. Phase 1 focused on short fixed-wing routes. Subsequent phases broadened the scheme to include international sectors, helicopter services, seaplane operations, North-East priority routes, and longer-stage flights — pushing UDAN from a niche regional scheme to a structural pillar of Indian aviation.

Phase-by-phase summary

• UDAN 1.0 (2017): 128 routes awarded; first commercial flight Delhi–Shimla
• UDAN 2.0 (2018): added priority areas including the North-East, hill states, islands; helicopter routes introduced
• UDAN 3.0 (2018-19): tourism-focused routes, seaplane operations, and select international connectivity
• UDAN 4.0 (2020): further expansion to remote areas and water aerodromes, longer stage length allowed
• UDAN 5.0 onwards: stage length raised to enable longer regional links; relaxation of viability period rules; helicopter and small-aircraft sub-schemes (Sagarmala Seaplane, Krishi UDAN, etc.)

Krishi UDAN is a related sub-scheme designed to airlift perishable agricultural produce — separate from passenger UDAN but sharing the airport network being built up by the parent scheme.

What is UDAN International?

A sub-scheme extending regional connectivity logic to short cross-border routes.

UDAN International was launched as a sub-scheme to incentivise short international routes from Tier-2/3 cities — for example, Guwahati to Bangkok or Dhaka, or Vijayawada to Singapore. The idea is to let Indian states bid for international routes from their airports and provide VGF instead of the central government bearing the entire fiscal load.

States nominate routes; eligible airlines bid; the state government pays viability gap funding for a defined period (typically up to three years). Results have been mixed because international routes need different aircraft, slot coordination at foreign airports, and visa-friendly demand — but a handful of routes have been launched under this umbrella.

For most travellers, “UDAN” still effectively means domestic regional connectivity — the international sub-scheme remains a smaller, slower-burn programme rather than the headline product.

How Do You Book a UDAN Flight?

The same way you book any flight — there’s no separate UDAN-only portal.

Booking a UDAN flight is no different from booking a regular domestic ticket. You don’t need a special application, government ID category, or quota approval. Whether a seat you buy turns out to be an “RCS seat” (capped) or a market seat depends purely on which fare bucket is open when you book.

Step-by-step booking

1. Pick your origin and destination — make sure both airports are operational under UDAN if you specifically want a capped fare
2. Search well in advance — RCS seats are limited per flight and sell out earliest
3. Check the operating airline — for very small sectors, it’s often Alliance Air, Star Air, or FlyBig rather than IndiGo or SpiceJet
4. Verify aircraft type — many UDAN routes are flown on ATR turboprops; baggage limits and cabin size are smaller than mainline jets
5. Read the fare rules — UDAN base fares are usually non-refundable or carry steep change fees, similar to deep-discount mainline fares
6. Carry valid government photo ID — same boarding rules apply as any domestic flight

You won’t see a label saying “this is a UDAN seat” — the cheapest fares on these routes simply are the UDAN inventory until they sell out.

UDAN vs Regular Flights — When Do You Actually Save?

UDAN saves the most on early bookings for short Tier-2/3 sectors.

The savings story is real but conditional. If you book a UDAN route 30–60 days out, you’re often paying close to the cap — sometimes ₹2,000–₹3,500 for a one-hour sector that would otherwise be served only by 12-hour bus or train. Closer to departure, fares creep up to mainline-equivalent levels because the RCS inventory is exhausted.

When UDAN clearly wins

• Short sectors with no other air option (e.g., Delhi–Shimla, Bengaluru–Mysore)
• Early bookings on Tier-2 to metro routes (Hubli–Bengaluru, Jharsuguda–Mumbai)
• North-East intra-region routes where train alternatives are slow

When you may not save much

• Last-minute travel: RCS seats are gone, mainline pricing applies
• Peak holiday weeks: dynamic pricing pushes fares above the cap on remaining seats
• Major metro pairs where regular low-cost competition already keeps fares low

The disciplined play is simple: if you live in or travel often to a Tier-2/3 city on a UDAN sector, plan ahead and you’ll consistently land below mainline equivalents.

Which Tier-2 and Tier-3 Airports Has UDAN Revived?

Several airports that had been dormant for years are now busy regional hubs.

One of UDAN’s clearest wins is reactivating airports that had runway infrastructure but no scheduled flights. In many cases these were defence airfields, state government airstrips, or AAI airports that had lost commercial relevance — UDAN gave airlines a financial reason to put them on the map again.

Standout revivals

• Shillong (Umroi): intermittent service before; now a regular spoke from Kolkata and Guwahati
• Jharsuguda (Veer Surendra Sai): opened as a UDAN-led commercial airport in 2018, connecting Odisha’s industrial belt
• Hubli & Belagavi (Karnataka): consistent scheduled connectivity to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad
• Mysore: reactivated commercial scheduled service via UDAN bidding
• Pakyong (Sikkim): Sikkim’s first airport, an explicit UDAN milestone in 2018
• Kushinagar, Deoghar: heritage-focused activations to support tourism economies

Whether each route stays profitable enough to continue beyond the three-year VGF window is the next-stage test — but on the connectivity headline, UDAN has demonstrably opened up the regional map.

What Are the Real Challenges and Critiques?

Route discontinuations, low load factors, and post-subsidy sustainability are the main concerns.

UDAN is a serious policy success on coverage, but it isn’t without operational pain points. Independent analyses and parliamentary committee reports have flagged that a meaningful share of awarded routes were either never started or were discontinued within the three-year subsidy window, often citing low passenger demand or operational economics.

Common challenges

• Low load factors on niche sectors, especially mid-week and off-season
• Airline withdrawals when subsidy periods end and the route can’t sustain itself commercially
• Infrastructure bottlenecks at smaller airports — limited ground handling, terminal capacity, instrument-landing systems
• Fleet mismatches — turboprops are right-sized but have fewer operators and higher per-seat costs
• Weather and terrain, especially in hill and North-East airports, causing cancellations that erode passenger trust

None of these is fatal, and most are being addressed in newer phases through extended viability windows, demand-aggregation efforts, and airport upgrades — but they explain why the operational route list moves around every year.

What’s the Future of UDAN?

Longer stages, more helicopter routes, and integration with airport modernisation are the next steps.

The government’s stated trajectory is to keep expanding UDAN as a structural rather than temporary scheme. Newer phases have raised the maximum stage length to allow longer connections, opened the door for more helicopter and seaplane operations, and explicitly linked UDAN with broader airport modernisation, regional MRO development, and the National Civil Aviation Policy targets.

What to expect next

• Continued addition of greenfield and brownfield airports — many already in AAI’s expansion pipeline
• Tighter alignment with tourism circuits (heritage and religious routes)
• More helicopter UDAN sectors in hilly states and remote districts
• Possible iterations of UDAN International on a state-led model
• Continued participation from a wider set of regional carriers as Indian aviation grows

For travellers, the practical implication is that more Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities will get one-stop access to every Indian metro over time — making UDAN routes a normal part of how Indians fly, not an exception.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What is the UDAN scheme in simple words?

UDAN is an Indian government scheme launched in 2016 to make regional flights affordable. On UDAN routes, at least half the seats are sold at a government-set fare cap — around ₹2,500 for a one-hour flight — funded by a top-up paid to airlines from the Regional Connectivity Fund.

Q2. Who started UDAN and when?

UDAN was launched by India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation under the National Civil Aviation Policy 2016. The first commercial UDAN flight took off on 27 April 2017, connecting Shimla to Delhi, operated by an airline that had successfully bid for the route in UDAN 1.0.

Q3. How do I know if my flight is a UDAN flight?

You won’t see a “UDAN” label at booking. If the route is part of the scheme, the cheapest fares released first are RCS (capped) seats. Once those sell, prices rise to mainline market levels. Booking 30–60 days in advance is the simplest way to land RCS pricing.

Q4. Are UDAN tickets refundable?

UDAN base fares typically follow the operating airline’s standard low-fare rules — often non-refundable or with high cancellation fees. Refundability depends on the specific fare class you buy, not on whether the route is UDAN. Read the fare conditions before completing booking.

Q5. Which airlines fly UDAN routes in India?

The main operators include IndiGo, SpiceJet, Star Air, Alliance Air, FlyBig, and Pratham Aviation, along with smaller helicopter operators. The exact carrier on your route depends on who won the latest UDAN bidding round for that sector.

Q6. Can I book UDAN flights on HappyFares?

Yes. UDAN routes appear in normal flight searches just like any other domestic sector. Search your origin–destination pair on HappyFares and the available UDAN-route fares from the operating airlines will be listed alongside non-UDAN options.

Q7. How many airports does UDAN cover?

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has indicated that UDAN has touched 80+ regional airports and heliports since 2017, including major revivals like Jharsuguda, Pakyong, and Shillong. The operational set changes each year as new airports activate and some routes pause between bidding rounds.

Q8. Is the UDAN fare cap really ₹2,500?

₹2,500 was the original headline cap for around a one-hour flight at launch. Caps are slab-based by flying time and have been revised periodically by the Ministry. Short hops are cheaper; longer sectors are stepped up proportionally. Always confirm the current cap on your specific route.

Q9. Are UDAN flights safe and reliable?

Yes — UDAN flights are operated by DGCA-licensed Indian carriers under the same safety regime as any domestic flight. Reliability can vary at smaller airports due to weather and infrastructure, especially in hilly or North-East regions, so build buffer time for onward connections.

Q10. What’s the difference between UDAN and Krishi UDAN?

UDAN is the passenger regional connectivity scheme. Krishi UDAN is a related Ministry initiative aimed at airlifting perishable agricultural produce on subsidised cargo terms. They share the airport network but address different objectives — people movement vs farm produce movement.

The Bottom Line

UDAN has done something that purely commercial aviation in India had failed to do for decades: put small-city air travel within reach of the average traveller. The scheme isn’t perfect — routes start and stop, some smaller airports still need infrastructure work, and you have to book early to actually land the capped fares — but it has structurally widened how Indians fly.

If your origin or destination is a Tier-2 or Tier-3 city, treat UDAN as your default option, plan 30–60 days ahead, and you’ll consistently get fares that simply weren’t available a decade ago. Start your search on HappyFares for a transparent fare view across operating airlines and dates.

Related reading on the HappyFares blog:

• Best Time to Book Flights in India (2026)
• First-Time Flyer Guide for India (2026)
• Budget Airlines in India Compared
• Delhi to Shillong Flights — Complete Guide