New Delhi, Dec 14 (Agencies): Low cost airline Air Deccan is all set to start operations under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS), also known as UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik), from December 22, as per media reports.

The first flight of the airline will be on the Mumbai-Nashik route.

Although Air Deccan airfares will start at Rs 1,400 for the Mumbai-Nashik flight, some lucky passengers will be able to get tickets for just Re 1.

The RCS, also known as UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) aims at making flying affordable to the masses with fares capped at Rs 2,500 km per hour of flight, and also improving air- connectivity to tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Five airlines were awarded 128 routes during the first round of bidding for the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) in March. The carriers were given six months to start operations and the deadline expired on September 30.

Air Odisha (50 routes) and Air Deccan (34 routes) had bagged the maximum number of routes under the scheme. Air Deccan had bagged 34 routes routes under the scheme.

The other three airlines -- Alliance Air, SpiceJet and Trujet -- have already started their RCS operations. However, of the total 128 routes, only 15 have been operationalised.

The airlines that win rights to operate RCS flights are required to offer half of their seating capacity at discounted rates in return for which they get government subsidy.

This will be the second innings of the airline. Founded by GR Gopinath in 2003, Air Deccan merged with Vijay Mallya owned Kingfisher Airlines in 2008. However it was grounded in 2012 under financial stress.

Air Deccan will begin operations in four bases –Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Shillong.