Mumbai airport can't give more flight slots for UDAN: CEO

MUMBAI: Mumbai’s airport is “facing problems” because of regional connectivity flights and will not be able to give any more flight landing slots to regional carriers, its CEO said Tuesday.

“Whatever slots we have given for UDAN is already causing problems. UDAN flights are reducing the capacity of the airport. An aircraft (regional jet) carries only 19-20 passengers and the it takes takes more time on the runway,” said Rajeev Jain, CEO of Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), the GVK-led consortium running the Mumbai airport.

“Does it (UDAN) make economic sense? Is it more economically viable to connect to connect Delhi-Mumbai or Kolhapur to Mumbai?” he asked.

UDAN or Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (Let the common man fly) is the Narendra Modi government’s ambitious scheme that seeks to air-connect India’s smaller towns at cheap fares and develop hundreds of defunct airports.

Mumbai, India’s second busiest airport and its most constrained, has given about half of the 20 slots that required by regional carriers that have won bids for Mumbai-connected regional routes under the UDAN scheme.