Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt. of India started a new scheme i.e. Regional Connectivity Scheme-UdeDeshkaAamNaagrik (RCS-UDAN) throughout the country to improve intra-connectivity & inter-connectivity of the States.The website details is at (https://www.aai.aero/en/rcsudan/rcs-udan-1) for further reference. In this regard, State Govt. has signed an agreement with Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt. of India and AAI on 01.03.2017. Under this scheme, 4 Airstrips/Airport of the State were enlisted by Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt. of India in the first phase i.e. Jeypore, Utkela, Rourkela Airstrip and Jharsuguda Airport.

• The Jharsuguda Airport which is named as Veer SurendraSaiAirport,is operating under AAI. It was inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 22.09.2018 and the flight operations was also flagged off on the same day. Later on, Spice Jet Airlines started its operation on 31.03.2019 from ex-Jharsuguda to New Delhi, Kolkata & Hyderabad while Alliance Air started its operation on 05.06.2019 from ex-Jharsuguda to Bhubaneswar & Raipur under RCS-UDAN Scheme.
• The Rourkela Airstrip is being maintained by RSP-SAIL and will be operated by AAI but State Govt. will provide Security and Fire Personnel for this purpose. Routes have been awarded from ex-Rourkela to Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Raipur but the operation has not yet started, till date.
• State Govt. is also developing Utkela&Jeypore Airport into a full-fledge commercial Airport and will be operating very soon under RCS-UDAN.