For years the food costs at Airports in India have been highly priced with Water bottles & Tea priced around Rs. 100 to 200, while basic snacks like Vada Pav, Samosas etc priced around Rs. 200 to 250! Flyers often were left with no option but to buy these snacks at exorbitant prices or carry their own food.

Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha raised the issue in Parliament about the high prices of basic food items at the airport during the Winter Session of the Parliament which prompted the government to initiate measures to make the availability of affordable food options inside the airports.

Thus was born Udan Yatri Cafe, a government initiative that was designed to provide affordable food and beverages to travellers at airports.

The initiative was first introduced at Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport and has since expanded to several airports across India, such as Chennai, Ahmedabad (Terminal 1), Pune, Bhubaneswar, Itanagar and Vijayawada.

What makes the Udan Yatri Cafe stand out is its straightforward pricing. Travellers can get tea and bottled water for Rs 10, coffee for Rs 20. Sacks like samosas, kachoris or patties are priced at Rs 20. The Cafe also offers a sweet of the day for Rs 20.

However the Udan Yatri cafe is currently present in very limited airports & flyers hope that the services would soon be available at all the airports in India.

Also currently the cafes are available mostly only in departure checkin areas of the airport & not between the security check & the boarding gate.

Most of the flyers spend maximum of their time after going through the security check & waiting near the boarding gates. Government  / Airports should also have these cafes in those areas too for the benefit of the flyers.

Traveltechie hopes that the above two measures too are quickly implemented by the government & the airports across India for the benefit of the flyers.