when priyanka sharma a frequent visitor to nasik heard about the introduction of direct flights from ahmedabad to nasik her excitement knew no bounds priyanka a mother of a threeyearold had often wished to make a oneday business trip to nasik but had to give up several times because of the arduous travel time involved back in 2018 a trip to nasik would have taken her about 11 hours by bus now she can reach the budding business city in less than one and a half hours udan an aviation breakthroughthere are thousands like priyanka who have made the switch from their previously laborious travel plans by taking the udan route with ude desh ka aam nagrik udan or regional connectivity scheme the aviation industry has successfully managed to create a capacity of 1 crore seats resulting in a significant increase in domestic passenger traffic in india undoubtedly indians are more connected than ever before through 100 operational airports in india of which 35 were added post2014 and with the government planning to operationalize 100 underserved airports by 202627 more people will be able to join the aerial network saving time and money and sometimes bothcatering to the ever increasing air trafficcongratulationsyou have successfully cast your votelogin to view result data from iata shows that in march 2018 india registered the highest domestic load factor of 878 across the top seven aviation markets in the world while growth continues to flow in from metros and nonmetros by making flying accessible and affordable under the udan scheme there has been a commendable uptick of 242 in air passenger traffic on rcs routes between april 2018 april 2019 as per estimates from makemytrip indias leading online travel company not so well connected destinations that were once aviation dark areas are now on indias air travel map providing unparalleled connectivity to flyers with latent demand now being met by efficient and better connectivity in tier ii and tier iii cities there is an assured promise of an improved economic landscape in these markets by making them viable business destinations home to employment opportunities increase in commercial and residential real estate development and most importantly enhancing the lives of people in smaller cities udan has successfully created a new benchmark for regional air connectivity in the global aviation industry with the kind of impact it is creating for consumers airline operators and industry at large with the planned phased rollout and a more robust execution roadmap for the scheme we are set to see more and more indians take the aerial route to travel and save time well begun is half done said deep kalra founder and group ceo makemytrip new air routes underway already in its third phase now introduction of udan international scheme with improved connectivity to neighbouring countries will serve as a key propeller of trade tourism and most importantly build opportunities for socioeconomic growth amongst eight identified routes these include guwahati to dhaka kathmandu yangon