With reference to “FLY91” which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. It is a newly launched airline in India.
2. Its inaugural flight took off from Manohar International Airport on 18th Mar

Question

With reference to “FLY91” which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. It is a newly launched airline in India.
2. Its inaugural flight took off from Manohar International Airport on 18th March, 2024.
Select the correct answer from the codes given below :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Both 1 and 2. FLY91 is a new Indian regional airline, and it began commercial operations on 18 MARCH 2024 with its inaugural flight out of MANOHAR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT at Mopa in Goa, which is also its base. Both statements are therefore accurate as printed, and (d) is the answer. Statement 1 is true in the strict sense the examiner intends — FLY91 was not a rebranding of an existing carrier but a new entrant, and as of the December 2024 exam it was less than a year old. Statement 2 is true in every particular: the airport is right (Manohar International, the Mopa airport in North Goa, not Goa's older Dabolim airport), and the date is right (18 March 2024). The airline was flagged off by the Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, flies ATR 72-600 turboprops, and is built around regional connectivity under the RCS-UDAN scheme, connecting smaller airports to larger ones on thin routes that a narrow-body jet cannot serve economically. Its early network shows exactly that design — Goa to Bengaluru, Goa to Sindhudurg, and later Goa to Agatti in Lakshadweep. The reason this question is answerable even without recalling the airline is that both statements are modest: neither claims a superlative, neither claims a first, and neither reverses a role. When a two-statement current-affairs item contains no exaggeration, 'both correct' is usually the right instinct.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This accepts the flight but denies that FLY91 is new, which is wrong — FLY91 entered service only on 18 March 2024 and was a fresh regional carrier, not an existing airline under a new name. Candidates who half-remember one of India's many rebranded or revived carriers may talk themselves out of statement 1, but there is nothing to revive here.  (b) Both statements are correct, so 'neither' is doubly wrong. It is the default guess of a candidate who has not heard of FLY91 at all — but note that the safer default in a two-statement item with no superlative and no reversed role is the opposite one.  (c) This concedes that the airline is new but rejects the launch details, and those details are exactly right. The inaugural flight did depart from Manohar International Airport — the Mopa airport in North Goa, which is FLY91's base — on 18 March 2024. The most likely reason a candidate rejects statement 2 is confusing Goa's two airports and expecting Dabolim.

Concept: FLY91 belongs to the regional-connectivity layer of Indian civil aviation rather than to its trunk-route layer. That layer was created deliberately by policy: the National Civil Aviation Policy of 2016 introduced the Regional Connectivity Scheme, branded UDAN — Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik — under which airlines bid for routes to underserved and unserved airports, fares on a fixed share of seats are capped, and the shortfall is met through viability gap funding financed by a levy on major routes. The economics of those routes suit small turboprops, which is why regional carriers fly ATR-72s rather than jets, and why the scheme has been accompanied by the revival and construction of small airports and airstrips.

State PCS 2024 Q90 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2024 Q90 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer