UDAN SCHEME

Beginning April, passengers may be able to fly on as many as 128 routes connecting 70 big and small airports across the country by paying ₹2,500 for an hour’s flight.

BACKGROUND :

(a) The Centre announced a list of routes awarded to five airlines which will operate flights under its regional connectivity scheme, named UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik).
(b) The regional airlines will connect these destinations with their nearest bigger airports such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur, among others.

UDAN SCHEME :

(i) Under this scheme, half of the seats on the plane will be capped at ₹2,500 per hour’s flight.
(ii) As per the scheme, the Centre will subsidise the losses incurred by airlines flying out of dormant airports to help airlines charge ₹2,500 for an hour’s flight to passengers.
(iii) 80% of the subsidy will be collected by charging a levy of up to ₹8,500 on each departing flight of domestic airlines and the rest 20% will come from the respective State governments.
(iv) Government will provide subsidy to airlines for first three years of operations when they will have exclusive flying rights on the selected routes.

ADVANTAGES :

1. It will create affordable yet economically viable and profitable flights on regional routes so that flying becomes affordable to the
common man even in small towns.
2. This scheme will stimulate growth in the regional aviation market and will connect underserved and unserved airports that really didn’t have flight services.