With the introduction of UDAN ( Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) Tier 2-3 airports saw a new lease of life and so did Belagavi, which was included in UDAN phase 3 which had allotted 13 routes under UDAN.
The ambitious initiative to boost flight connectivity on routes seen to be commercially unviable by making air travel more affordable worked and Belagavi airport at its peak saw as many as 32 flights a day (16 Arrivals+16 departures).
The scheme of cheaper airfares on these allotted routes was for a period of three years, and now that the honeymoon period is over for Belagavi.
This means on routes that have completed the 3 years, airlines won’t get any benefits from the Govt.
Since the winter schedule has come into force on 30 October 2022, Belagavi sees a maximum of 12 flights (6 arrivals+6 departures) on average. On some days it goes up to 14.
But as soon as the scheme ended, a majority of private airlines withdrew their service.
The passengers flow at Belagavi has also reduced and the main reason behind this is the number of flights alone.
Since the scheme was introduced, the Belagavi airport saw 6,440 flights taking off or landing with 2.80 lakh passengers in 2021-22.
Already the hit is being visible as already the airlines have stopped services like Alliance air stopped the Pune Flight.
Some Non-UDAN routes have always been successful like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Currently, Belagavi (IXG) is connected to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Indore, Ajmer, Nagpur, Nashik, Jodhpur, Tirupati, and Surat.
Only Spicejet, Indigo, and a chunk of the routes are operated by StarAir.
In 2018, SaveIXG Campaign was launched so that Airlines start more flights from Belagavi.
Primarily if history is seen, the most popular routes from Belagavi have been Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. Now the other new routes have come into the picture but those flights are not daily, hence the numbers are non-comparable. The flights to Delhi which were seeing a 75-80% occupancy daily have now been reduced to Thrice a week.
It really succeeded as UDAN was announced, but now the skies over IXG are very turbulent, but Belagavi each time has risen higher than before on its own, and this time too, it will.