UDAN scheme made multiple routes go sustainable, says civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday said that the Centre has been successful in democratising the civil aviation sector, which was considered to be elitist in the country. He said that the Centre’s UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) programme, which is based on the Viability Gap Funding model, has made significant changes in the connectivity in the country's regional territories.

Speaking at the BT Mindrush event in Mumbai, Scindia said: “In the last six years, 463 routes that were never thought to be feasible have been made possible through the UDAN scheme. About 74 airports, like Kishangarh in Rajasthan, Rupsi in Assam, Darbhanga, and others, were built and made functional in the last 6 years. If we talk about throughput, these airports, like Darbhanga and all, bring in about 2 to 5 lakh passengers per year. We have flown around 1 crore, 16 lakh passengers through Udan.”

The Centre’s UDAN scheme is aimed at connecting small- and medium-sized cities with major cities via air service. Airlines compete for air routes and participate in bids. The contract is granted to an airline that bids for the lowest subsidy. The plan was to place small-town India on the map of aviation by encouraging airlines to fly on regional routes.

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Last week, the Centre started the fifth phase of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)-UDAN. On April 21, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) initiated the process of inviting bids from airlines for various routes under the fifth round of bidding for its regional connectivity scheme UDAN by releasing a bid document.

Speaking about UDAN’s reach and wide network, Scindia said the scheme is not just for the farmers or just the common man, it is for the entrepreneurs and new airlines. “Many routes, which were started under the Udan scheme, have now become viable. Udan scheme is for three years, but many airlines are still flying those routes because now customers want to travel by air. Udan has made multiple routes within the country go sustainable,” Scindia told Rahul Kanwal, News Director, India Today and Aaj Tak.

A recent tweet from the Ministry of Civil Aviation said only aircraft operations of Category 2 (20–80 seats) and Category 3 (>80 seats) will fall in this round with no restriction on the distance between the origin and destination, with stage length cap of 600 km waived.

The ministry further said the Viability Gap Funding has been revised. Viability Gap Funding has been increased to 600 km from 500 km earlier.

The Centre first released the country's National Civil Aviation Policy in 2016, where the UDAN Scheme was the most essential component. PM Narendra Modi launched the first aircraft from Shimla to Delhi under the UDAN scheme in April 2017.

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