Delhi–Shimla UDAN flight takes off at Rs 2,036

Shimla, a summer getaway in Himachal Pradesh is now a quick flight away. Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first flight service from Delhi to Shimla, as part of his low-cost UDAN (Udey Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) programme.

The service will start from 28 April, and will operate five days a week – Wednesday to Sunday. Alliance Air, an Air India subsidiary will be the first carrier to operate the flights from Delhi to Shimla. The aircraft is a 48-seater ATR, offering 35 seats on the Delhi-Shimla leg and 15 on the return journey. The limited number of seats from Shimla to Delhi flight is due the restrictions at Shimla airport.

As per the Alliance Air spokesperson, the one-way fare has been fixed at Rs 2,036. If we go by some other news reports, the basic fare of Rs 2,036 is for the 24 seats out of 35, and for the rest of the 11 seats the price might go upto Rs 20,000, since they will not be covered under the subsidy math.

UDAN is first-of-its-kind scheme that will make flying more accessible, thus stimulating the connectivity through a market-based mechanism. The scheme aims to create 128 new routes connecting 45 towns and cities, while the fares being capped at Rs 2,500 per hour of flying. Soon, the UDAN scheme will connect 27 currently served, 12 underserved and 31 unserved airports.

So, get ready to take off peeps as flying made affordable in India.