Boosting Connectivity

Presenting the Union budget for 2023-24, Union Finance Minister said that fifty additional airports, heliports, water aerodromes and advance landing grounds will be revived for improving regional air connectivity

BY SANJAY BHATNAGAR

The government’s push to expand regional air connectivity seems to be bringing in encouraging results. Domestic air travel data indicates that on March 1, 2023 a total of 4,32,453 passengers travelled over 3,033 domestic flights, this is 8.5 per cent higher than the preCovid average of daily 3,98,579 passengers. Similar trend has been evident for the past four months. Indian aviation sector is at a cusp of unprecedented growth. This can also be gauged by the fact that during the month of January 2023, all Indian operational airports (taken together) handled 2,25,520 aircraft movements, carried 30.52 million passengers and 237.76 thousand tonnes of freight, all this is more than 40 per cent higher than same period last year.

The Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) was launched on October 21, 2016 by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). In this regard continuous efforts of the Government have paid rich dividends. Media reports indicates that by February 2, 2023, more than 1,13,00,000 passengers have availed of this scheme over 2,16,000 UDAN flights.

RCS UDAN aims to enhance regional air connectivity from unserved and underserved airports in the country to make air travel affordable to the masses, essentially focusing on connectivity between the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities of the country. Participating airlines based on their assessment of demand on particular routes, submit their bids under RCS UDAN. It is a market driven scheme, where bidding rounds are conducted from time to time for covering more destinations and routes. The scheme has a validity of ten years by then the Government plans to operationalise 1,000 UDAN routes and prior to that it plans to develop 100 airports by 2024. By first week of February 2023, a total of seven bidding rounds have taken place and 467 UDAN routes covering 73 airports have been operationalised across the country. These also include nine heliports and two water aerodromes.

Considering the performance of Indian Civil Aviation sector since 2014, despite the setback during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has continued to repose faith in the potential of RCS UDAN scheme. This is very much evident from continued budgetary support by the government over the past few years.

For FY 2023-24, the MoCA has been allocated a total of `3,113.36 crore including `3,026.70 crore for revenue and `86.66 crore for capital expenditure. Of this, `1,244.07 crore has been earmarked for the RCS UDAN for revival of 25 airports, operationalisation of 100 RCS routes and VGF for north east connectivity.

The government’s plan caters for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) requirements of the scheme through a levy on certain domestic flights. The airlines are being provided VGF under the scheme to keep the fares affordable and accessible for the common people. This way, funds generated from the sector themselves stimulate the growth and finance development of the sector. Continued VGF

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