Air Deccan (DKN, Nashik) terminated its UDAN operations in the western Indian state of Maharashtra in early October, the Times of India has reported. The Indian government will reportedly seek to force the airline to resume flights.
The regional specialist used to operate services from Nashik to Mumbai International and Pune, as well as from Mumbai to Jalgaon. The routes were awarded to Air Deccan in 2017 under the government-run UDAN or Regional Connectivity Scheme, which seeks to boost connectivity to under- and unserved airports in India.
While the carrier did not give any reasons for the termination of the routes, an unnamed official from the Airports Authority of India said that Air Deccan reportedly accrued a significant debt with Hindustan Aeronautics, which operates Nashik airport.
Air Deccan has been unsuccessfully trying to relocate from Nashik to Ahmedabad to avoid costly repositionings of the aircraft to Mumbai, where the airline could not secure apron slots for overnight parking.
The carrier launched the three routes in Maharashtra in December 2017 but subsequently suspended them in March and later resumed flights in July. The carrier deploys its Beech 1900Ds also in eastern India out of Kolkata.
Air Odisha (Bhubaneshwar), which has the same owner as Air Deccan, has recently suspended its UDAN ops out of Jharsuguda also drawing the ire of the government. If the airline fails to sufficiently explain its decision or to resume operations to Jharsuguda, it could even be stripped off its Air Operator's Certificate (AOC), the government warned.
