In boost to Centre's Udan scheme, SpiceJet starts 8 new flights connecting Madhya Pradesh

The new flights will connect Gwalior and Jabalpur with airports in Maharashtra and Gujarat. CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said air travel is a necessity for development

Budget airliner SpiceJet will start operating eight new flights connecting Madhya Pradesh with Maharashtra and Gujarat from Friday. The services are being seen as a major boost to the central government’s UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme which aims to enhance air connectivity to remote areas and make such travel more affordable.

The ministry said the new flight routes will boost aerial connectivity of Gwalior and Jabalpur with Maharashtra and Gujarat and further improve economic activity. (AP file photo)

In a tweet, the civil aviation ministry wrote, “@flyspicejet will commence operations on these eight new routes: Gwalior-Mumbai-Gwalior, Gwalior-Pune-Gwalior, Jabalpur-Surat-Jabalpur, & Ahmedabad-Gwalior-Ahmedabad.”

The ministry said the new flight routes will boost aerial connectivity of Gwalior and Jabalpur with Maharashtra and Gujarat and further improve economic activity.

Addressing the event, Chouhan said it is important to join all cities of India by means of airways to ensure that the country continues to prosper, adding through the UDAN scheme, several small cities have been provided with air connectivity.

“It is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream that a person wearing slippers also gets to travel by air. Today, air travel is not only important for the rich, it has become a necessity for development. Hence, the middle classes and the lower middle classes want to travel by air and save time,” Chouhan said.

Thanking the stakeholders responsible for this landmark step, the Madhya Pradesh chief minister further said he hoped that SpiceJet keeps on increasing flights in the state and assured of all possible cooperation from the state government.