Without flyers, India's regional airlines are still waiting for their UDAN

Ill-planned business strategy and inadequate infrastructure have plagued regional airlines with mounting losses, threatening the government's ambitious regional connectivity plan

Kaustav Dhar was on a high in the winter of 2017. As CEO of Zoom Air, he was back on the aviation circuit. Dhar has been at the helm of an airline earlier too. Not once but thrice — one was shut down, another sold, and the third failed to take off.

This time he expected to do better. The Modi government was rolling out the ambitious Regional Connectivity Scheme (popularly known as UDAN) and Dhar latched on to it like a lifeline. 

One year later, the three aircraft of Zoom remain parked on the tarmac of Delhi Airport. Zoom hasn’t operated