Now, fly from Lucknow to Dehradun, Bhopal and Jaipur with Air India

Air India's subsidiary Alliance Air on Tuesday announced the launch of new flights connecting Lucknow with the capitals of Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

The move is aimed at developing Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, as a regional hub of Alliance Air, an airline official said.

With effect from July 5, Alliance Air will be operating new flights on Lucknow-Dehradun, Lucknow-Bhopal and Lucknow- Jaipur routes.

"Alliance Air will be the first carrier to provide connectivity on these routes," the airline said in a statement.

These flights will be operated by the regional airline's 70-seater ATR 72 aircraft.

"We are offering attractive air fares on all these flights," the statement added.

The airline recently launched services on Delhi-Shimla- Delhi and Delhi-Gwalior-Indore-Mumbai sectors. These flights were part of the government's regional connectivity scheme (RCS) under which the airline is entitled to a government subsidy in order to keep fares low for passengers.

Alliance Air was awarded 15 RCS routes out of the total 128, but the airline plans to offer additional flights on short sectors. The three new flights announced today are part of that initiative.

The RCS, also known as UDAN ( Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik), aims at connecting tier-2 and tier-3 cities apart from making flying affordable with fares capped at Rs 2,500 per hour for which airlines receive a viability gap funding from the Centre as well as the state government concerned.