In what may be called another failure of the ruling party YSRCP led AP Government, the town of Kadapa would lose flight services from the 15th of September from the Indigo airlines. Nonpayment of promised incentives ended up as the reason behind the suspension of fight services.
Going into the details, the services of Trujet halted were given to Indigo as it won the bid for Kadapa in the scheme of Udan by the central government to make flight services available for towns as well. As a result, Indigo started its services from Kadapa on the 27th of March 2022 with an agreement between AP Airport Corporation Development Limited and Indigo. According to the agreement, APACDL has to pay 20 crores annually to Indigo as it has to bear the losses due to the services in Kadapa under the name Viability Gap Funding. Until now, the AP Government and its related APACDL haven’t paid a penny resulting in multiple requests from Indigo Airlines. Many times, officials from the airlines met the AP Government and local collector but all the meetings led to nothing. As a result, Indigo has decided to stop all of its services to and fro in Kadapa from the 15th of September and it will also stop issuing tickets from the 1st of September itself.
Political experts say this is a huge blow to Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy since Kadapa is his hometown and halting services is a direct failure of his management skills. One has to see how AP Government and APACDL react to Indigo’s decision.