Star Air on Monday launched flights between Kalaburagi in Karnataka and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh under the Centre's regional connectivity scheme UDAN, the Civil Aviation Ministry said. "Star Air was awarded the Kalaburagi-Tirupati route under the RCS-UDAN-3 bidding process last year," the ministry's statement noted.
The airline will be operating three weekly flights on the route and will deploy its 50-seater Embraer-145 aircraft, it added. Under the UDAN scheme, financial incentives from the Centre, state governments and airport operators are extended to selected airlines to encourage operations from unserved and underserved airports, and keep airfares affordable.
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A total of 305 routes and 53 airports including five heliports and two water aerodromes have been operationalised till date under this scheme, the ministry said.