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23 Dec 2021 UDAN Yojna

Posted at 12:31h in Daily current-affairs by khyati khare 0 Comments

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The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has so far approved 948 air routes under the UDAN scheme, out of which work is in progress on 403 routes connecting 65 airports and 8 heliports are done. However, some of the started air routes have also been closed.
The main reason for this was failure to set up airports due to paucity of land, difficulty for airlines to find their sustenance ‘route’ and adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic etc.
The poor financial condition of many smaller, regional aircraft carriers has been a bane for the scheme.

The objective of this scheme is to increase connectivity with remote and regional areas of the country and make air travel affordable.
It is a key component of the Centre’s National Civil Aviation Policy led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was launched in June 2016.
Since the objective of this scheme is to improve air connectivity to Tier-II and Tier-III cities through the revival of unused and under-utilized airports, it is called ‘Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)’.
Under this scheme, about half the seats on UDAN flights are given at concessional fares, and a certain amount of ‘viability gap funding’ (VGF) is provided to the participating carriers, which is funded by the Center and is shared among the respective states.
The scheme will be jointly funded by the Central Government and the State Governments.
This scheme will continue for 10 years and can be extended later.

Airlines are provided ‘routes’ to operate under the program through a bidding process and will have to keep airfare at the rate of Rs 2,500 per hour of flight.
At least 50% of the total seats in an aircraft will be given at cheaper rates.
To enable airlines to offer affordable fares, they are subsidized by the government for a period of three years.
Rs 4,500 crore has also been earmarked by the government for the revival of 50 airports in the first three years.

The fourth round of UDAN (UDAN 4.0) was launched in December 2019 with special focus on North Eastern Region, Hilly States and Islands.
Airports already developed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have been given high priority for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) under the scheme.
Under UDAN 0, helicopter and sea-plane operations have also been included.

The poor financial condition of many smaller, regional carriers has been a bane for the scheme.
Many plan participants do not own more than one or two aircraft and are often poorly maintained. New aircraft are too expensive for these smaller partners.