New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) The government on Friday said that it expects the first flight under its Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) to be operated by January 2017.
The operations under the scheme are intended to provide air connectivity to un-served and remote routes with airfare being capped at Rs 2,500 for an hour's journey of around 500 km.
The scheme christened as UDAN -- "Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik", will be in operation for a period of 10 years.
"We will target the first flights under UDAN to take off by January 2017," Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju said at the launch event of UDAN scheme here.
The minister said the scheme is a key component of the recently approved National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP), whose main objective is to "enhance regional connectivity through fiscal support and infrastructure development".
"Cabinet had taken a decision on civil aviation policy four months back; regional connectivity scheme was a major component of it," the minister said adding that: "We are cautiously optimistic about UDAN."
The policy intends to grow regional connectivity via several measures such as incentives, capping of air fares for a limited number of seats and revival of existing air strips and airports.
The scheme is expected to support airlines by providing direct financial support namely viability gap funding (VGF), which would be given to the interested airlines to kick off operations to an un-served or under-served airport.
According to Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, UDAN scheme has been launched in-line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of making air travel affordable.
"RCS is inspired by PM's vision to make air travel accessible to common people. UDAN intends to bring air travel to everybody, especially to under-served airports," Sinha said at the event.
"Hawai chappal wale ko bhi hawai jahaj mein bhitana hai."
Sinha elaborated that the scheme entails a market-based mechanism for seat subsidies, wherein the selected airline operator would be obligated to provide a minimum of 9 and a maximum of 40 seats priced under the capped fares.
"UDAN does something never attempted before, anywhere in the world. We have made flying more affordable by lowering costs across the board," Sinha said.
The scheme is expected to connect 50 airports in the next four years, apart from increasing ticket volume from 80 million to 300 million by 2022.
--IANS
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