The Pakyong airport in Sikkim is amongst 15 airports that don’t see flights any extra. Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled it in 2018. Photo: PIB by way of AFP
The authorities’s greatest declare to success in aviation since 2014 is constructing “74 airports in seven years”, versus the identical quantity constructed within the seven many years since Independence. However, solely 11 of those airports have truly been constructed from scratch, whereas 15 airports have fallen into disuse over this era, as a result of collapse of just about half the routes launched underneath the regional connectivity scheme (RCS).
In the latest previous, airport improvement has primarily been undertaken underneath the RCS, which was launched in 2017 to enhance air connectivity for smaller cities, and to redevelop under-utilised airports. This largely concerned the revival of previous airstrips that had been both mendacity unused or had been used sparsely.
The authorities launched 479 routes to revive these airports, out of which 225 have since ceased operations, in accordance with the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s response to questions from The Hindu.
Beyond the stats
Only 11 greenfield airports have turn into operational since May 2014, in accordance with the Minister of State for Civil Aviation V.Ok. Singh’s reply to a query within the Rajya Sabha on July 24. These embrace the airports at Mopa in Goa, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi and Shivamogga in Karnataka, Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, Orvakal (Kurnool) in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala, and Donyi Polo in Arunachal Pradesh.
The determine of 74 new airports, frequently trotted out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in addition to Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, consists of 9 heliports and two waterdromes. These two waterdromes, constructed for seaplanes between Gujarat’s Gandhinagar and the Statue of Unity in Kevadia, closed down quickly after the PM’s launch in October 2020, as SpiceJet discontinued its flights after a “change in technical requirements”, the airline informed The Hindu in response to a questionnaire.
As many as 15 airports, together with Sikkim’s solely airport in Pakyong, and people in Punjab’s Adampur, Pathankot, and Ludhiana don’t see any flights anymore, in accordance with a senior authorities official.
Subsidising routes
The RCS, also referred to as the Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik scheme, was launched with the intention of taking flying to the plenty by bettering air connectivity for tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and subsidising air journey on these routes.
The routes are awarded after a bidding course of, and the successful airways are given sure incentives, together with viability hole funding (or a subsidy) equal to 50% of the seating capability on their plane. In return, the airways promote 50% of their seats at a flat price of ₹2,500 per hour of flight, with a purpose to make air journey inexpensive. The value of the subsidy is borne by Indian airways flying on non-RCS routes, who pay an RCS levy of ₹15,000 per departure, as per the newest revision that got here into impact in April 2023. The airways additional move the levy on to their passengers on non-RCS flights. A complete sum of ₹2,038 crore has been collected as RCS levy.
The scheme additionally put aside a sum of ₹4,500 crore to revive previous airports by recarpeting runways and erecting terminal buildings. Of these, 46 airports have been redeveloped by the Airports Authority of India, and the remaining by State governments and Public Sector Units. The authorities has thus far spent ₹3,490 crore on these airports. The Finance Ministry permitted one other ₹1,000 crore for this function in May this yr, for a interval of three years.
Commercially unviable
Of the 225 routes which have ceased operations, 128 routes shut down even earlier than finishing the obligatory three-year interval underneath the scheme. Airlines discovered 70 of those routes to be commercially unviable regardless of the subsidy, whereas the remaining 58 have been cancelled both on account of “non-compliance” by the airline operator, or the airline surrendering routes, or the airline corporations shutting down, as within the case of Air Deccan and Air Odisha.
As many as 97 routes shut down after finishing the three-year interval throughout which the federal government gives assist. The goal of the scheme was that after the three-year interval, airways would be capable to maintain operations on their very own with out authorities assist, however out of the 155 routes which have accomplished three years, solely 58 have survived.
SpiceJet, which bagged 74 routes — or each one in 5 routes awarded to airways underneath the scheme — now flies on solely 20 of them, forcing the AAI to ship it a number of show-cause notices, warning that its safety deposit can be forfeited.
The airline mentioned it couldn’t function 12 routes as airports similar to Thanjavur, Moradabad, Saharanpur and Ayodhya weren’t prepared for operations. For the remaining routes, the airline mentioned that it “tried hard to establish these markets, but passenger demand remained very low.”
