Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia announced on Monday that Uttar Pradesh would get nine more airports in the next two years, taking the total number of airports in the state to 18.

Scindia said that the Modi government is giving a huge importance to the civil aviation sector and has developed 75 airports in the last nine years, compared to 74 airports in the first 65 years of independence. He said that the total number of airports, heliports and waterdromes in the country has reached 149.

Meerut airport and UDAN scheme

Scindia was replying to a question about the Meerut airport, which is an unlicensed airport and was identified for development under the UDAN scheme. Scindia said that the Meerut airport can start operations with ATR aircraft, which are small turboprop planes, using VFR, which means visual flight rules.

However, he said that the state government has to provide an additional 115 acres of land for the airport to be ready and licensed. He said that under UDAN 4.2 round of bidding, the Meerut-Lucknow-Meerut route has been awarded to FlyBig, a regional airline, for the operation of RCS flights. RCS stands for regional connectivity service, which is a subsidized airfare scheme under UDAN.

He said that FlyBig will operate RCS flights with 19-seater aircraft and frequency of 133 seats per week from the Meerut airport, once it is licensed. He said that the RCS flights are not for ATR 72, which is a larger version of the ATR aircraft.

Existing and upcoming greenfield airports in UP

Among the 12 greenfield airports that the Modi government has constructed, two are in Uttar Pradesh: Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar). Kushinagar airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2021 and is expected to boost tourism and pilgrimage to the Buddhist circuit. Noida International Airport (NIA) at Jewar is the country’s biggest airport project and is being developed by Zurich Airport International AG.

The other seven greenfield airports that are planned to be constructed in UP in the next two years are at Ayodhya, Chitrakoot, Sonbhadra, Lalitpur, Meerut, Moradabad, and Aligarh. These airports are expected to enhance the regional connectivity and socio-economic development of the state. The government has also planned to develop 100 airports by 2024 under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)- Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) infrastructure scheme, which aims to make air travel affordable and accessible to the masses.