Swarajya: New Delhi: Wednesday, September 19,
2018.
Seven out of ten seats sold under the
regional connectivity scheme (RCS) known as Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) were
sold to customers, The Hindu has reported. The information was accessed by the
newspaper under the Right To Information (RTI) act. These figures pertain to
the past 16 months since the scheme was launched in April 2017.
The UDAN scheme aims to take flight
services to tier 1 and tier 2 cities of the country, thereby enabling the
common man to access air travel. 428 routes were awarded to 17 airlines and
helicopter operators under this scheme in two rounds of bidding. Of these,
eight airlines have started flights on 96 routes. Helicopter services are yet
to begin.
Under the scheme, airlines have to set
aside half of the seats for a price of Rs 2,500 per hour of flight. In return,
the airline participating in the scheme will get subsidies from the concerned
state government and the central government.
Mumbai-Porbandar, Delhi-Kanpur- Delhi,
Mumbai-Kandla-Mumbai have been the most successful routes with a passenger load
factor (seat occupancy) of over 90 per cent. Shillong-Dimapur-Shillong,
Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar-Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad-Jamnagar-Ahmedabad have seen the least
passenger load factors among the functional routes.
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