Perceptions of users of UDAN scheme in Indian civil aviation sector

Government of India Ministry of Civil Aviation released the National Civil Aviation Policy 2016 (NCAP-16), that focuses on making flying affordable to the masses and strengthening the regional air connectivity. One of the objectives of NCAP is to enhance physical support and infrastructure development. To achieve this objective, it is required to establish and integrated ecosystem which will lead to significant growth of the civil aviation sector. In this contest Government of India released a Scheme UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagarik), which is a regional airport development and regional connectivity scheme (RCS) this scheme is aimed at making air travel affordable and wide spread, there by leading to economic development and employment in all regions of the India. Initially out of the 486 Indian airports 406 were participating in UDAN. The performance of UDAN during last two years needs to be evaluated so as to assesses whether its intended objectives are meet and suggestions for future strategies need to be given. In this contest the present study intended to ascertain the passenger perception about UDAN scheme and ascertain its roll in regional connectivity in India. To achieve this a Random sample of 555, UDAN users were taken and a structured questioner were used to obtain their opinions regarding UDAN implementation. Based on the responses the success and changes faced by UDAN scheme was assessed using descriptive data analytical tools and inferential statistical tools.