The regional air connectivity scheme, UDAN, or ‘Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik’, has been found wanting on several parameters by the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG). Launched in 2016 to get smaller towns and cities on the country’s aviation map, the architecture of the scheme envisaged a new category of airlines — Scheduled Commuter Airlines (SCAs) — with a fleet of small aircraft which would fly on unserved and underserved routes. Further, the SCAs were provided with viability gap funding (VGF) according to a pre-determined formula to make their operations viable and in turn, they were required to sell a certain number of seats per week at a subsidised fare. To fund the VGF, scheduled airlines (IndiGo, Air India etc) were asked to pay a levy.
Analysing UDAN’s performance between 2016 and 2021, the CAG found that SCAs were unable to mount flights on most routes because of non-viability, even with the VGF. Also, some SCAs sought more VGF than allowed and some scheduled airlines failed to deposit their full share of the levy to the Regional Air Connectivity Fund (RCF). The CAG noted that the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) had not, to date, formulated guidelines to regulate the collection and remittance of the RCF and the disbursement of the VGF to airlines for underwriting seats on flights mounted on commercially non-viable routes. Left unchecked, scheduled airlines continued to collect higher fares from passengers and also delayed paying their share of RCF.
Flagging flaws in self-certification of the VGF claims by SCAs, the CAG illustrated how Alliance Air (once a part of the Air India Group) claimed excess VGF of nearly Rs 31 crore by under-allocating the required number of Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) seats on its aircraft on UDAN routes. Alliance Air also charged nearly Rs 49 lakh as excess fare from passengers. UDAN fares are regulated because airline operators are given VGF. Similar discrepancies were found against some other SCAs too.
18/08/2023 Sindhu Bhattacharya/Moneycontrol
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
0 comments:
Post a Comment