RCS-UDAN Scheme on ground level

Context

According to a recent update, out of the 479 airport routes that were revived by the Union Government, under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS-UDAN), 225 have ceased its operations.

About the update:

As per the information, of the 225 routes that have ceased operations, 128 routes shut down even before completing the mandatory three-year period under the scheme.
Airlines found 70 of these routes to be commercially unviable despite the subsidy, while the remaining 58 have been cancelled either due to “non-compliance” by the airline operator, or the airline surrendering routes, or the airline companies shutting down.
As many as 97 routes shut down after completing the three-year period during which the government provides support.

Scenario of Civil aviation in India:

Since the launch of modern civil aviation in India in 1911, only 76 airports had been connected by scheduled commercial flights.
The number of operational airports has gone up to 141 from 76 in 2014.

With 479 new routes initiated, UDAN Scheme has provided air connectivity to more than 29 States/ UTs across the country.

About Regional Connectivity Scheme – UDAN:

UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) is a regional connectivity scheme launched by the Government of India, as a part of the National Civil Aviation Policy in 2016.
It aims to operation for a period of 10 years (2016-26), envisages providing connectivity to un-served and underserved airports through revival of existing airports and air strips.
Objective: To take flying to the masses by improving air connectivity for tier-2 and tier-3 cities and subsidising air travel on these routes.
The routes are awarded after a bidding process, and the winning airlines are given certain incentives, along with viability gap funding (or a subsidy) equivalent to 50% of the seating capacity on their aircraft.
- In return, the airlines sell 50% of their seats at a flat rate of 2, 500 per hour of flight, in order to make air travel affordable.
Airport Authority of India (AAI) is the implementing agency for the scheme.

Phases of the Scheme:

RCS – UDAN scheme has gone through different phases in which new flight routes and airports/airstrips have been added under the program:
- UDAN 1.0:
  - 5 airlines companies were awarded 128 flight routes to 70 airports.
- UDAN 2.0:
  - In Phase 2, helipads were also connected.
  - In this phase, Central government awarded contracts to 15 airliners to operate in 325 routes across hilly, remote areas.
  - It involved connecting 56 new airports and helipads to 36 existing aerodromes, as per the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
- UDAN 3.0:
  - Inclusion of Tourism Routes under Phase 3 in coordination with the Ministry of Tourism.
  - Inclusion of Seaplanes for connecting Water Aerodromes.
  - Bringing in a number of routes in the North-East Region under the ambit of UDAN.
- UDAN 4.0:
  - Phase 4 of the scheme was launched in December 2019 with a special focus on North-Eastern Regions, Hilly States, and Islands.
- UDAN 4.1:
  - Launched in March 2021, the UDAN 4.1 round is focused on connecting smaller airports, along with special helicopter and seaplane routes.
  - In addition to these, some new routes have been proposed under the Sagaramala Seaplane Servicesin consultation with the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways.
- UDAN 5.0:
  - Launched in April 2023, the UDAN 5.0 round is focused on Category-2 (20-80 seats) and Category-3 (>80 seats) aircrafts.
  - There is no restriction on the distance between the origin and the destination of the flight.
  - Airlines would be required to commence operations within 4 months of the award of the route; earlier this deadline was 6 months.

What are the Challenges?

Infrastructure: Lack of instrument landing systems (ILS) lead to flight cancellations and the repeated cancellations make it difficult to build traffic on the route on a sustained basis.
Traffic route - While the infra challenge might be easier to fix, the bigger challenge is putting in place an ideal network design.
Thus, the key is to discover routes where there is sustained traffic, not just in a few months of the year, but all round the year.
Time slots - Subsequently, finding convenient time slots for every route will become an administrative challenge.
This is because, the number of runways is not increasing in high traffic airports and the airport capacity lagging the passenger traffic growth.
Especially, the new regional airlines have faced a major challenge in connecting the metro airports to the new Udan routes, since they don’t have pre-existing slots in them.