New Delhi, Mar 12 (IANS): Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia on Tuesday flagged off regional airline Fly91's maiden flight from Goa's Manohar International Airport (MOPA) to Lakshwadeep's Agatti Islands.

In his remarks at the inauguration ceremony, he lauded the transformative impact of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership on the aviation industry, noting the emergence of new regional airlines in the past decade.

"In the past 10 years, the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought a new dawn to this industry which resulted in the birth of six new regional airlines," he said.

The minister emphasised that under PM Modi's stewardship, the industry had witnessed a paradigm shift from news of airline closures and bankruptcies to a renewed era of growth and expansion.

He also highlighted the multidimensional growth of civil aviation in the country. He reiterated the government’s commitment to connecting tier 2 and tier 3 cities through the UDAN scheme and said that the aviation industry is expecting to raise its domestic traffic to 30 crore by 2030, against just 6 crore in 2014.

The airline said that scheduled flights will commence, effective from March 18, between the Manohar International Airport, Goa and Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jalgaon, Agatti, Pune, Nanded and from Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune to Sindhudurg, Jalgaon, Nanded and Goa, in a phased manner.