UDAN Completed Ten Years on 21 October 2026 With 687 Routes, 95 Aerodromes and About 1.72 Crore Passengers, and a ₹28,840 Crore Modified Phase Is Under Way

UDAN, short for Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (roughly, let the country’s common citizen fly), reached its tenth anniversary on 21 October 2026. A factsheet that the Press Information Bureau (PIB) published on 20 October, titled Wings of Change, counts 687 regional routes put into operation, 95 aerodromes brought into use, more than 3.68 lakh flights and 1.72 crore passengers, about 17.2 million. Of the 95 aerodromes, 17 are heliports and two are water aerodromes, stretches of water where seaplanes can land. These are government figures, and the totals below are as of 20 October 2026.

What the 20 October factsheet counts

The scheme, formally the Regional Connectivity Scheme, was launched on 21 October 2016 under the National Civil Aviation Policy 2016. It draws airlines to airports with little or no scheduled service through concessions and a subsidy called viability gap funding (VGF), and it caps fares on part of the seats.

The factsheet sets the scheme inside a wider count. India’s operational airports rose from 74 in 2014 to 166, it says, and aviation-sector jobs from about 3 million in 2014 to nearly 7.7 million in 2026. The openings at Navi Mumbai and Noida are covered in our piece on India’s airport count, and the Visakhapatnam replacement in our article on Bhogapuram. This one stays with the regional scheme.

A fare cap for an hour in the air

The rules were reported on the day of the launch. On 21 October 2016 the government said fares would be capped at ₹2,500 for half the seats on flights of 476 to 500 km, roughly one hour in the air, DT Next reported. An airline bidding for a route had to offer at least half its seats at the capped fare and received VGF in return, while the remaining seats were priced by the market. For fixed-wing aircraft a bid had to cover at least nine and at most 40 seats. The cap was to be reviewed against the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers.

The first UDAN flight ran from Shimla to Delhi on 27 April 2017. The PIB’s October 2025 anniversary release says the Prime Minister inaugurated it, and a report from the day names Alliance Air as the operator and ₹2,036 as the special starting fare. The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s April 2025 release quotes the Prime Minister’s stated aim as seeing “a person who wears a ‘hawai chappal’ to fly on the ‘hawai jahaz’”, that is, someone in rubber slippers on an aeroplane.

How the counts grew from 2024 to 2026

The ministry has published a count at nearly every milestone, which allows a plain comparison.

• October 2024, eighth anniversary: 601 routes, and 86 aerodromes (71 airports, 13 heliports and two water aerodromes), with over 1.44 crore passengers on more than 2.8 lakh flights, in a ministry release of 20 October. The Civil Aviation Minister announced on 21 October that the scheme would be extended for another ten years.
• 26 April 2025: 625 routes, 90 airports (including 15 heliports and two water aerodromes) and over 1.49 crore passengers, in a PIB release.
• 21 October 2025, ninth anniversary: 649 routes, 93 airports and over 1.56 crore passengers on 3.23 lakh flights.
• 28 February 2026, in the Cabinet’s release: 663 routes across 95 airports, heliports and water aerodromes, with more than 3.41 lakh flights carrying 162.47 lakh passengers.
• 20 October 2026: 687 routes, 95 aerodromes, more than 3.68 lakh flights and 1.72 crore passengers.

Between the ninth and tenth anniversary releases, the ministry’s counts rose by 38 routes, two aerodromes, roughly 45,000 flights and roughly 16 lakh passengers.

One caution about numbers. A report by IANS on 20 October, carried by Telangana Today, quotes a ministry factsheet with 1.49 crore passengers, 625 routes and 90 airports. Those are the figures in the PIB’s April 2025 release, not the October 2026 ones. The PIB page dated 20 October 2026 gives 687 routes and 1.72 crore passengers, and so does a release of 22 September 2026 that quotes the Civil Aviation Minister on 687 routes, 3.66 lakh flights and around 1.71 crore passengers.

Four airports the ministry points to

The factsheet names four airports as examples. Its before-and-after distances and visitor counts are the government’s, and we have not checked them independently.

Tezu, in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lohit district, began operating in 2021. Residents earlier travelled over 164 km to Dibrugarh or 610 km to Guwahati, the PIB says. The airport now connects over 2 lakh people, cuts the trip to Guwahati to about an hour, and has enabled air cargo exports of ginger, cardamom and rice. The state’s profile is in our Arunachal Pradesh overview.

Deoghar, in Jharkhand, opened to scheduled flights in July 2022. The factsheet says a road or rail journey from Delhi earlier took over 15 hours and now takes about two by air. It says more than 10 lakh pilgrims a year fly to the Baba Baidyanath Dham, that patients reach AIIMS Deoghar by air, and that over 30 new hotels have opened.

Kishangarh, in Rajasthan, has had air access since 2017, serving Kishangarh, Ajmer and Pushkar. The PIB says it carries marble exports to Italy, the UAE and the United States, created over 200 direct jobs and hosted a flying training academy from 2022.

Purnea, in Bihar, started in 2025. Before that, the factsheet says, people in Seemanchal and the Kosi region travelled over 200 km to Bagdogra for a flight. Kolkata is now about two hours away by air against 10 by road, and Patna about one hour against eight. The runway is about 2.8 km, which the PIB calls Bihar’s longest, and takes A320 and B737 aircraft.

What the airlines are paid and spared

As of 15 October 2026 the government had disbursed ₹5,091.23 crore as VGF, the PIB says, up from ₹4,023.37 crore in the April 2025 release. The October 2025 release adds that ₹4,638 crore had been invested in airport development under the scheme.

Airlines on these routes get other concessions, which the April 2025 release lists. Airport operators waive landing and parking charges for these flights. The Airports Authority of India does not levy its Terminal Navigation Landing Charges and applies a discounted route navigation charge. Excise duty on aviation turbine fuel (aeroplane fuel) bought at these airports is capped at 2 per cent for the first three years, and states have committed to cutting VAT on that fuel to 1 per cent or less for ten years.

Routes started and routes still flying

“Operationalised” is a cumulative count: a route that began and later stopped is still in the 687. Figures tabled in Parliament, as Business Today reported on 26 July 2026, show 679 routes operationalised and 348 currently operating. Uttar Pradesh had the most discontinued routes, 34, and the report says routes were stopped before completing the three-year VGF period. The ministry says discontinued routes may be considered under the next phase and encourages states to identify and prioritise them.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) examined the first three bidding rounds in a report covered by IANS on 11 August 2023. Of 774 routes awarded, 403 never began. Of the 371 that did, 112 completed the three-year concession period, and 54 routes connecting 17 airports were still operating beyond it as of March 2023. Passenger travel on these routes grew from 2.63 lakh in 2017-18 to 24.97 lakh in 2022-23, and the CAG made 16 recommendations, including a way to test whether a route can last.

Modified UDAN and the next ten years

The Union Cabinet approved Modified UDAN on 25 March 2026 for FY 2026-27 to FY 2035-36 with an outlay of ₹28,840 crore. The Prime Minister launched it on 4 July 2026 from Jodhpur Airport, according to the PIB. Its main lines, from the Cabinet release and the 20 October factsheet:

• 100 airports to be developed from existing unserved airstrips, ₹12,159 crore over eight years, which works out at ₹100 crore each.
• 200 modern helipads at ₹15 crore each, ₹3,661 crore over eight years, aimed at hilly, remote, island and aspirational regions.
• Operations and maintenance support for about 441 aerodromes for three years, ₹2,577 crore, capped at ₹3.06 crore a year per airport.
• ₹10,043 crore of VGF for airlines over ten years.
• ₹400 crore for two HAL Dhruv helicopters for Pawan Hans and two HAL Dornier aircraft for Alliance Air.

The airline subsidy changes shape. VGF was limited to three years; it now runs up to five, tapering to 75 per cent of the awarded amount in year three, 50 per cent in year four and 25 per cent in year five, and route exclusivity is limited to three years, according to the minister’s July presentation. The cap of 40 seats per flight on capped fares is removed for aircraft of more than 80 seats.

The ministry’s October 2025 release also records a seaplane and helicopter bidding round, UDAN 5.5, with letters of intent issued for 150 routes connecting 30 water aerodromes, and a plan for around 120 new destinations.

On 22 September 2026 the ministry signed 21 memoranda of understanding with states and Union territories and launched a Challenge Mode portal through which they can nominate airstrips and helipads for development.