Good Connectivity May Lead To Excitant Travel, Airport Usage

The civil aviation ministry launched the draft regional connectivity programme on Friday in anoffer to make flying suitable and to restore dormant airports.

Once the program is enforced travellers will be able to fly an hour’s journey (of about 500km) for an all-inclusive cost of Rs 2,500. The passenger service fee and user development fee will not be applicable on this fare.

However, the fez on the airfares will be applicable only to limited number of seats in an aircraft and the travellers will be eligible for subsidised fare on a first-come-first-served basis.

Only routes covering a distance of 200-800 km connecting a ‘less connected or unconnected’ airport will qualify for the regional connectivity program and the airfare fez will be reciprocal to the air distance travelled.

Airfares will be capped in the range of Rs 1,700-Rs 4,070 and will be revised every quarter based on the prevailing inflation rate.

Hinterland Effect

While the program will be applicable to airports with no flight connections in the previous two flying seasons, the government has identified 16 airports, receiving seven flights a week, which will also fall under the program.

Some of them are: Agra, Allahabad, Pantnagar, Diu, Shillong, Jamnagar, Bhavnagr, Kullu, Tezpur, among others.

As the Indian Economy grows, consumption-led growth in populated metros is expected to spill over to hinterland regions. This is also expected to be on account of factors of production (land, labour, etc.) becoming costlier in the densely populated metrocities. In this scenario, air connectivity can provide requires impetus to economic growth of such regional centres, said the draft regional connectivity program document. The document has been uploaded on the civil aviation ministry’s website for purposes of receiving public comments till July 22.

We feel regional connectivity is going to boost air traffic growth tremendously. Now the centre should collaborate with states and offer last-mile connectivity to travellers, said D Sudhakara Reddy, national president of Air Passengers Association of India.

Subsidy

While the centre will provide 80% subsidy to airlines for three years to fund the losses they acquire, to enable them to change lower airfares to travellers, the remaining 20% will come from the states.

The centre will set up a regional connectivity fund, to be financed by a cess charged to airlines flying on metro or trunk routes for each departure.

The cess, which will likely be revived beginning August 1, may marginally increase airfares on such detour.

If an airline is not able to plan a route within three years even after (OUR) giving viability gap funding, then we will give a cooling off period 24 months before the route can again qualify to become a part of the scheme, Mahesh Sharma, Ministerof State, Civil Aviation said.

Seat Occupancy 

He said if the seat occupancy of the airline on a particular route exceeds 90%, the subsidy will be reduced by 50% in the subsequent year. Mr Sharma said subsidised fares will be applicable only on 9 seats (for 12 to 18- seated plane) and 40 seats (for aircraft with 80 or more seats).

The government may provide higher subsidy to the airlines if the coat of aviation turbine fuel goes up in future, R N Choubey, Civil Aviation Secretary said.

The airlines will be mandated to fly at least three flights every week on such regional routes and the subsidy will be provided for maximum seven flights per week. There are around 30 inactive airports which are low-hanging fruit and can be revised immediately, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapaathi Raju said.