Udan flights from Chennai fail to take off

Chennai: In the wake of regional connectivity scheme, airlines started around 30 new flights from Chennai to small towns in the past five years but they have gradually withdrawn around 11 flights and have cut down on the frequency of the rest.

However, ministry of civil aviation has listed the 30 flights as new flights started from Chennai in the past five years in an information given in Lok Sabha last month to stress on growth in connectivity to small towns. The direct flights were started by Indi-Go, SpiceJet, GoAir, Truejet and Air India. SpiceJet has cancelled five of the 11 flights it started from Chennai while IndiGo has cancelled two of the eight flights.

GoAir has cancelled two of the five flights and Trujet cancelled one flight. Air India has cancelled its Varanasi flight, which was shown as the only new service the airline started from Chennai during the period. Direct flights were pulled out from Hubli, Mangaluru, Belagavi, Rajahmundry, Bangkok, Raipur, Udaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Vijayawada and Varanasi. Air fares are high to Udaipur, Belagavi, Hubli, Raipur and Varanasi as passengers have to fly via another airport. The fares for travel next week are between ?5,000 and ?8,000.
29/08/19 V Ayyappan/Times of India

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Nagaland: 3 flight services in Dimapur by October

Dimapur: Flight services between Dimapur-Guwahati, Dimapur-Imphal and Dimapur-Dibrugarh under the government of India’s UDAN scheme will start operating by October this year.

A Raj Bhavan statement informed that this was an assurance given by the Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri to Governor RN Ravi when they met in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Ravi had called on the union minister to raise the issue of air connectivity of Nagaland with the rest of the country, it informed.
27/08/19 Eastern Mirror

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Sikkim misses flight relaunch date

Calcutta: On, off, about to be on but off again — that’s the status of the flight to Sikkim’s Pakyong.

The lone flight to the Himalayan state from Calcutta, suspended in June, was set to be revived on October 1 but the airline has shelved the plan citing lack of infrastructure at the Pakyong airport, located at 4,600 feet.

Officials at SpiceJet said the facilities required for flights to operate in low visibility were yet to be installed at the airport.

“We had planned to restore the flight on October 1. But the plan was deferred at the last moment because the infrastructure is not yet ready. We now plan to resume the flight towards the end of October,” a SpiceJet official said.
“Many of those who have booked tickets have taken refunds. We will try to accommodate the passengers who have not taken refunds on flights to Bagdogra.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in September 2018 inaugurated the airport at Pakyong, built under the Centre’s regional connectivity scheme Udan (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik).
In the absence of instrument landing system, the minimum visibility required for a flight to land at Pakyong is 5km.
“The weather would be foggy on most days and flights could not land. On an average 50 per cent of the flights would be cancelled because of weather,” a SpiceJet official said.
Since the weather is likely to improve in October, which also coincides with the holiday season, the airline had planned to resume the flight on the 1st of that month. But the relaunch had to be deferred because of lack of infrastructure.

Civil aviation ministry officials said they were unable to install landing aids because of agitation by landowners there.

Sikkim government officials said the landowners had started an agitation and were not allowing upgrade work.

“The residents are alleging that about 60 acres of land adjacent to the airport had been damaged because of landslides, caused while a hilltop was being sliced for increasing visibility. More than 60 houses were affected. The residents were paid compensation but they are demanding more,” an official in the Sikkim government said.

“We will meet the residents and the airport authorities to try and find a solution by the end of this month.”
28/08/19 Sanjay Mandal/Telegraph

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3 NE cities to connect to Dpr via air

Dimapur: Nagaland's commercial hub, Dimapur, is set to be connected with Guwahati, Imphal and Dibrugarh by air  in the next two months.
According to a statement from Raj Bhavan, Kohima, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry has assured Nagaland Governor RN Ravi about these air services which will be operatio-nalised by October, 2019.
"The three routes are Di-mapur-Guwahati, Dima- pur-Imphal and Dimapur-Dibrugarh covered under the UDAN scheme.  Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri gave the assurance during his meeting with Governor Ravi on August 27 in New Delhi, where the air connectivity of Nagaland with the country and the North East region was discussed", the Raj Bhavan press note said.
Meanwhile, Governor RN Ravi sought Hardeep Singh Puri’s assistance for early operationalisation of routes to three sectors under UDAN scheme.
28/08/19 Newmai News Nework/Sangai Express

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Ahmedabad among top UDAN airports

At present, flights connect 11 destinations from cit Ahmedabad airport has turned out to be among the top airports in the country in implementation of the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Nagarik) under the regional connectivity scheme of government. As passengers flying under the scheme are good in number, new destinations are being added from the city airport.
According to domestic traffic figures from the city airport in the past one month, 11 % of total flight movements from the city are under UDAN. In other words, out of total 5,500 flight movements in June, 605 movements are under the UDAN scheme from the city airport.
As the aircraft are small in size, the number of domestic passengers under the scheme (33,942) constitute 4.5 % of total passengers (7,46,265). Number of flights under UDAN have increased to reach 666 in July.
To facilitate more such flights, city airport is going to add 12 more parking stands only for small aircraft under UDAN.
Talking about the success of the scheme, "Ahmedabad airport is one of the top airports when it comes to implementation of UDAN scheme. As the scheme connects many tier-2 and tier-3 cities to Ahmedabad, a business hub, the scheme is getting passengers in good number. The airports under it are near pilgrimage and tourist places like Jaisalmer, Ajmer, Pushkar, Shirdi and Diu among others."
A place like Kishangadh airport also caters to marble traders of Ahmedabad. As there is capping of fare of Rs 2,500 per 500 km under this scheme, it is also affordable. As per an estimate, for every Rs 100 spent on this scheme, economy benefits by Rs 350. We are looking forward to adding more destinations like Aurangabad and Jalgaon which will enable people to get access to more cities."
At present, six airlines operate their flights from Ahmedabad to 11 destinations. They included Nashik, Belgaum, Kishangadh, Hubli, Jaisalmer, Porbandar, Kandla, Indore, Bhavnagar, Mundra and Diu. Two more airports, Jalgaon and Aurangabad, will be added to it from September 1, taking the number of destinations to 13.
As there is a problem of parking stands at the airport, some airlines are not able to start new flights under the scheme. Gangal said: "We have 33 parking stands at present to which we are adding 19 more. Of these, 12 will be for the small aircrafts. This will give a boost to the UDAN scheme from Ahmedabad. The new parking stands will be ready by the end of this month."
Looking at the figures of last two months, the number of flight movements under UDAN are increasing from the city. As per June 2019's data of domestic flight movements and passengers catered to, out of 5500 domestic flight movements from city, 605 were under the UDAN scheme. Number of flights under UDAN have increased by 10 % to reach 666 in July.
At present, airlines which operates under UDAN included Air Deccan, Alliance Air, Indigo, SpiceJet, Star Air, Tru Jet. Under the UDAN scheme, 400 airports will be built across the country out of which 100 airports have already been built and made operational. "The basic idea is to connect underserved and unserved airports to rest of the country," said an airport official.
27/08/19 Vishal Patadiya/Ahmedabad Mirror

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Giving wings to better air connectivity

Civil aviation is a Central subject and one that barely got significant attention from the States until recently. It is evident from the fact that very few States in India have active civil aviation departments. This is also due to the reason that States have had a passive role, invariably, having had to look up to the Central government for the development of airports and enhancing air connectivity. However, in the last four years, the situation has changed considerably.
The cooperation of States is seen as a major factor in the growth of the civil aviation sector. The Regional Connectivity Scheme, UdeDeshkaAamNaagrik (UDAN), has become a game changer as this flagship programme has a built-in mechanism to develop stakes of State governments in the growth of the sector.
Thirty States and Union Territories have already signed memoranda of understanding with the Central government. The policies of States and Centre are now being interlinked to make flying accessible and affordable. Governments are poised for the growth as they have the potential to strengthen their partnership under the cooperative federalism framework to provide the required impetus to the sector. Here are some policy intervention suggestions to jump-start the aviation market.
For any airline in India, the cost of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) forms about 40% of the total operational cost. Keeping petroleum products out of the purview of Goods and Services Tax (GST) may be a policy imperative for the State governments but this is a step that adversely impacts the expansion of air services to the States. States have very high rates of value-added tax (VAT) on ATF — sometimes as high as 25% — which has dampened the growth trajectory of civil aviation. ATF is a small component of overall petroleum products and deserves to be treated separately.
27/08/19 Usha Padhee/The Hindu

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UDAN: Yet to Take Off?

In the last session of Parliament, the government acknowledged that only one-fourth of the air routes granted under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) or UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik- loosely translated to ‘every common man flies’) have become operational. Flights have commenced so far on merely 186 out of 705 RCS routes it had offered to airline operators so far, it said.
This raises the question whether the government has taken the prevailing situation where airlines are not operating on the RCS-UDAN routes into account.
Read Amitabha Roychowdhury's analysis in full >> 

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Flight connect to Udaipur set to resume after 20 years

Aurangabad: The air connectivity to Udaipur, which was snapped twenty years back, is set to be re-established with the introduction of new flights from Aurangabad airport next month.
DG Salve, director of Aurangabad airport, said that the Mumbai-Aurangabad-Udaipur and Udaipur-Aurangabad-Mumbai flights will begin operating from September 27. State-run carrier Air India has proposed to facilitate the flights. With this, the total number of flights operating from Aurangabad airport will go up to seven.
Currently, Air India is facilitating flights to Delhi and Mumbai. Private airlines operator Trujet is running daily to and from Hyderabad. The Spicejet service to Delhi is expected to begin from October 8 and to Ahmedabad from September 1.
Salve said the Mumbai-Aurangabad-Udaipur will depart from Aurangabad at 7.15 am and reach Udaipur at 8.40am, while the Udaipur-Aurangabad-Mumbai flight will start from Aurangabad at 12.25pm and will reach Mumbai at 13.35pm. The bookings for the Udaipur flights are yet to be started. Early this year, Usha Padhee, joint secretary of ministry of civil aviation, had given assurance on starting the Aurangabad-Udaipur-Jodhpur flight under UDAN III scheme.
23/08/19 Times of India

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Kalaburagi airport ready for operation, Karnataka govt to sign pact with MoCA on Aug 24

Bengaluru: The much delayed completion of Kalaburagi regional airport in Karnataka is likely to see the light of the day when the State government will sign a pact with Ministry of Civil Aviation [MoCA] after the construction of the airport was competed by the government following inordinate delay by private promoters that was terminated.
 In an official statement, Principal Secreatry and Managing Director, Karnataka State Industry and Infrastructure Development Corporation (KSIIDC) Ganga Ram Baderiya said that the development of the regional Airport had commenced in 2007 on PPP mode by M/s. Gulbarga Airport Developers Limited (GADL) – a consortium of Maytas Infra Ltd, NCC Infra Holdings & VIE India, and had invested Rs 25 Crore, but withdrew from the project.
As GADL could not complete the works and accordingly the contract was terminated. Later on, the Karnataka Government completed the developmental works at a cost of Rs.181 Crore excluding the land cost of 742 acres and the Airport is ready for operation.
 23/08/19 UNI

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Indigo Airlines to begin daily flights from Bengaluru to Belgaum from September 8

Adding Belgaum in Karnataka as its 58th destination, low-cost carrier IndiGo announced on Wednesday that it will start daily flights on Bengaluru-Belgaum route from September 8. Additional daily flights on Bengaluru-Madurai route will also be started from the same day, it said.
“Further strengthening its connectivity out of Bengaluru, these new routes will be serviced by an ATR-18 aircraft,” the airline said in a statement. IndiGo’s Chief Commercial Officer William Boulter said, “These flights will strengthen point-to-point connectivity out of Bengaluru and enhance mobility within southern India.”
“We will continue to expand according to sectoral demand and offer an on-time, courteous and hassle-free service and affordable flying experience to our customers,” he said.
22/08/19 Scroll.in

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Why India is a graveyard for regional airlines

As an increasing number of travelers take to the skies, tier 2 and tier 3 cities are being integrated into airline networks. However, operations to tier 2 and tier 3 cities come with a unique set of challenges. For example, limited runway lengths, limited demand, extreme seasonality, lack of navigational aids and operational restrictions – to name a few. Together these make for a complex choice and challenging economics.
Regional airlines can indeed provide the missing connectivity link. Yet the Indian aviation market has seen several regional airlines fail.
Read why so >>

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Udan scheme crucial for growth of NE region to provide affordable aviation: Hardeep Singh Puri

Mumbai: Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday said the government's regional connectivity scheme Udan is not only "crucial" for the growth of the North-eastern region but also provide "affordable" aviation to the people.

The ministry had launched the Udan (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme in October 2016 to stimulate regional air connectivity and make air travel affordable to the masses. The scheme took wings with the flagging off the maiden flight to Delhi from Shimla by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 17 April 2017, operated by the national carrier Air India's regional arm Alliance Air.

"The effective implementation of Udan is not only crucial to the growth of North Eastern states but also provide affordable aviation to the citizens," said Puri in his address to the chief ministers, state chief secretaries/advisors at a meeting, which he chaired via video conference (VC), as per an official release.
This was first of the series of such VCs planned for a periodic review of the government's ambitious scheme, it said, adding the focus of the VC was to discuss and resolve issues concerning the effective roll-out of the scheme and take the stock of the progress being made. Besides Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Daman and Diu participated in the first review meeting through the video conferencing, the release stated.
20/08/19 PTI/First Post

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UDAN scheme crucial for affordable aviation: Minister

New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said effective implementation of the UDAN scheme is not only crucial for the growth of North-eastern states but also for providing affordable aviation.

He was chairing a meeting on the regional connectivity scheme (RCS-UDAN) with Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries of N-E states, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Daman and Diu via video conferencing.

According to the Civil Aviation Ministry, modernisation, expansion, development of airports and increasing connectivity were among the topics discussed at the meeting.

“The focus was to discuss and resolve issues concerning rollout of RCS-UDAN and take stock of progress being made,” the ministry said in a statement.
19/08/19 CanIndia

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Small airports to get automatic ATC

Chennai: After trying out mobile air traffic control towers and remote air traffic control units (ATC) for small airports, the Union ministry of civil aviation is considering an automatic air traffic control facility that does not require people on ground at airstrips to guide planes. This is to prepare ground infrastructure to boost regional flights.
A few small airports like Kurnool in Andhra and Mandvi in Gujarat are trying out the small machines that can guide planes to the runway and transmit ground conditions like wind direction and temperature to pilots. Sources said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is looking at different options to encourage airlines to fly to small airports which are being promoted under the regional connectivity scheme Udan.
As small airports at Vellore and Neyveli, which are waiting for airlines to start services, may have only one flight a day, authorities do not want to set up an air traffic control tower and post controllers in such places. Instead, automatic air traffic control units called Advanced Air Traffic Advisory System (AATAS) is being looked at.
“It is popular abroad and is used as an advisory system for pilots at airfields that have mostly business jet traffic. Small airports in the state will have only day-time flights, so the system may be ideal,” said an official.
“If there is only one service in a few days or one service in a day, the automatic system may be ideal. If traffic increases, it may not be ideal. Pilots use visual landing at small airports during clear weather and need some inputs from the ground about wind pattern and temperature. This can be provided automatically. As AAI may not be able to offer controllers, a few state governments are going for AATAS,” said an official.
19/08/19 Times of India

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Let’s face it — unless govt breathes life into UDAN urgently, it will die

The Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) has the best intentions in mind with the thought of Hawai Chappal in Hawai Jahaj predominantly aiming at subsidised travel from Tier-II and Tier-III cities helping grow trade, boost air traffic and connect cities to towns.
Is the intention good? It definitely is! Has the scheme lost its way? It has! Does it need a course correction? It does!
Read what went wrong and what course correction should be made>>

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India spent Rs 36 crore in 2018-19 on 27 airports where not a single flight takes off

New Delhi: The Modi government ran up a bill of Rs 35.67 crore in 2018-19 for the upkeep of 27 ‘ghost’ airports from where no flights take off, an RTI query has revealed. These 27 are among a total of 31 non-operational airports in the country. There are another 15 airports that are operational but no scheduled flights operate from there.

The AAI manages 136 airports/civil enclaves (CE) but technically only 90 of them are operational at present. A CE is an area at a military air base allotted for the use of commercial airlines.
This information was shared by the directorate of finance and accounts, AAI, in reply to an RTI query seeking information on airports, number of non-operational airstrips as well as expenditure and losses incurred by non-operational airports in 2018-19.

The RTI has given a list of 31 non-operational airports managed by the AAI and shared losses incurred by 27 of them in 2018-19, saying that the remaining four are new ones.

These 27 non-operational airports were built at a cost of Rs 40.69 crore.

Even though non-operational airports do not handle flights, they need to be maintained, their staff paid, and depreciation accounted for.
“We are trying to initiate air routes in some of the ghost airports. But airlines will only operate if there is a good demand from flyers. An airline cannot be instructed or forced to do so,” said a source at the RTI cell of the AAI.
Rajiv Jain, spokesperson of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, said the government has already planned concessions on parking charges for aircraft at ghost airports to attract airlines.

“The AAI has been making efforts to start operations in all of these airports using market-based bidding under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS), slot coordination meetings, discussions with stakeholders and implementation of incentive schemes,” Jain added.

Under the RCS, also known as UDAN or Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik, airlines compete to win subsidies to operate flights linking small airports with bigger ones.
09/08/19 Ifrah Mufti/Print

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Govt wants AI to run Indore-Dubai flight via Bhopal

Bhopal: The state government has swung into action to improve the existing air connectivity at the Raja Bhoj airport in the state capital. Chief secretary SR Mohanty has written a letter to Air India as well as Airports Authority of India (AAI) to run the recently launched Indore-Dubai international flight from Bhopal for two to three days in a week.
Mohanty has also requested the AAI to operate flights on routes which were decided under UDAN, the regional connectivity scheme, which was undertaken by the Central government in 2017.

Citing a meeting organized on June 17, the chief secretary said that the issue of commencement of international services from Bhopal airport came up for deliberation with the CMD of Air India, Ashwani Lohani.

Mohanty added that the AAI was requested to prepare customs and immigration facilities only on the receipt of a commitment letter from airline operators for starting international services. In this background a requisite letter from Air India is requested, the letter added.

The letter stated that since Bhopal is the capital of Madhya Pradesh, there is an urgent need for direct flights to Dubai and the Middle East. Therefore, it is requested to favourably view the possibility of commencing international flights from the city. Mohanty suggested that for a start, the recently introduced international service from Indore may be routed via Bhopal for two to three days in a week.

Air India may also consider aerial connectivity from Bhopal to other cities including Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Goa, Guwahati, Gwalior, Kolkata, Lucknow and Patna.
04/08/29 Ramendra Singh/Times of India

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