Air Deccan (DKN, Nashik) has warned it might relocate its base from Nashik to Ahmedabad as it is struggling to secure slots and parking spaces at airports in Maharashtra, the Press Trust of India newswire has reported.
"Flights under UDAN [Regional Connectivity Scheme] are increasingly becoming unviable for us in Maharashtra as we are not getting the right slots besides aircraft parking space. This may force us to move our base to Ahmedabad, where availability of parking space is not an issue," Managing Director Shaishav Shah said.
The regional specialist is currently basing its aircraft out of Nashik as it could not secure any space at Maharashtra's main gateway, Mumbai International.
Air Deccan launched its services under UDAN, the government-funded programme providing subsidies for flights to under- and unserved airports in India, in December 2017. The carrier operates out of Mumbai to each of Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Pune, and Nashik. Air Deccan briefly suspended the routes due to operational problems earlier this year, but resumed them in July 2018. Shah said that Air Deccan would continue to operate the current network after the relocation to Ahmedabad, but would also add the Ahmedabad-Nashik service.
Meanwhile, Air Odisha (Bhubaneshwar), which shares the same owner (GSEC Monarch Aviation) with Air Deccan, has announced it would launch its new UDAN service out of Bhubaneshwar to Jharsuguda in the eastern India state of Odisha. Jharsuguda currently sees no scheduled services and is set to become Odisha's second commercial airport, after Bhubaneswar.
