Will Flights Be Stopped To Kadapa? What's The Issue?
As the flights were stopped, the AP opposition leader had written to the Jagan government
It’s been some time since the flight services were started for Kadapa. However, reports are doing rounds that the services would stop after September 15. We will understand the issue if we look into the aspect of how true the reports are. Earlier, the Union Government started the UDAN scheme to give incentives for running flight services for small towns. As part of this, a fund was set up to help the airlines if they face losses for running the services. However, the Modi government at the Centre stopped the fund. With this, either the state governments should bare the losses or the flight services will be stopped and this has been going on.
Talking about Kadapa, TruJet Airlines used to run the flights. Later it stopped the services. With this, the flight movement was stopped for over six months. Amid this, a deal was made between the AP Airports Development Corporation Limited and Indigo Airlines. The agreement was made that the state government would give Rs 20 crores every year as gap funding.
As the flights were stopped, the AP opposition leader had written to the Jagan government. In the letter, it was mentioned that under the Udan scheme in their government flight services were run between Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, and from Kadapa, flights were run to Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Chennai, and Bengaluru. Later the Jagan government held talks with Indigo Airlines. With this, the flights started running from 2022, March 27 to Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Vizag cities.
However, Indigo Airlines is facing issues as it is not receiving funds under the agreement that was made with the state government. Following this, the airlines decided to stop flight services from Kadapa after September 1st. As part of this, the online sales of the flight were stopped. Indigo representtaives met the YSR district Collector and gave prior information.
It was decided to continue the online sale of tickets till September 25 as additional time was sought. It is said that the services will be stopped if the payments were not made before the deadline. As the amount that needs to be paid is not a big amount, the government might not face any issues. Many say that it would be good to sort out the issue without stretching further.