Madhya Pradesh Expands Regional Air Connectivity with Four New Routes
Madhya Pradesh has added four new direct air services linking key cities within the state with Bihar and West Bengal, as the government steps up efforts to improve regional aviation under its state civil aviation policy. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav launched the services from Raja Bhoj Airport in Bhopal, with the routes being operated by Alliance Air.
The new services connect Bhopal with Rewa and Patna, while Rewa and Jabalpur now have direct links to Kolkata. The Bhopal-Rewa service is particularly significant for strengthening connectivity between the state capital and the Vindhya region, while the Bhopal-Patna connection creates a direct air link between the capitals of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
To support the viability of these routes, the Madhya Pradesh government will provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) of up to ₹10 lakh per round trip under the Madhya Pradesh Civil Aviation Policy. The financial support is intended to make regional routes commercially sustainable while ensuring that passengers in smaller cities have access to faster connections with major urban centres.
The latest additions take the number of routes approved under the state policy to eight. Four services had already begun — Rewa-Delhi, Rewa-Indore, Rewa-Raipur and Indore-Abu Dhabi — while the latest four complete the initial set of routes supported through the policy. For Madhya Pradesh, the strategy goes beyond simply adding flights. Better air links between regional cities and major commercial centres can shorten travel times for business and trade, improve access to healthcare and education, and make tourism circuits more accessible. Direct connections to Kolkata and Patna also open additional links between central India and the eastern part of the country.
The expansion comes as states increasingly use targeted financial support to address the viability challenge faced by regional air routes. Smaller-city aviation often struggles to achieve the passenger volumes of metropolitan sectors during the initial years of operation; government-backed VGF can therefore help airlines maintain services until demand develops.
Madhya Pradesh is seeking to build a more distributed aviation network in which cities beyond Bhopal and Indore are connected directly to major domestic destinations. The approach could strengthen regional mobility while giving emerging urban centres greater access to markets, investment, tourism and business networks.