UDAN 5.0 launched by Civil Aviation Ministry to further enhance connectivity to remote areas

UDAN 5.0 launched by Civil Aviation Ministry: UDAN 5.0, The Regional Connectivity Scheme, popularly known as UDAN, has reached the fifth stage of its implementation, with the goal of enhancing connectivity to the nation’s rural and regional communities. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on April 21 began the process of accepting airline proposals for a number of routes under this fifth round of bidding for its regional connectivity scheme UDAN.

April 2023 Current Affairs Quiz

UDAN 5.0 launched by Civil Aviation Ministry: Key Points

• According to a tweet from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, there are no distance restrictions between the origin and destination, and the stage length cap of 600 kilometres is lifted. Only aircraft operations of Category 2 (20–80 seats) and Category 3 (>80 seats) will be eligible.
• There are no restrictions on the distance between the flight’s origin and destination, and the earlier stage length cap of 600 km is waived.
• The viability gap funding (VGF) supplied will be capped at 600 km stage length for both Priority and Non-Priority sectors, up from 500 km before.
• Only the network and individual route proposals made by the airlines will be taken into consideration, and the airlines will be required to submit an action/business plan two months after the Letter of Authorization (LoA) has been issued, in which they will detail their strategy for purchasing aircraft and their capacity for hiring crew, using slots, etc. at the time of the technical proposal.
• The same airline cannot be assigned to the same route more than once, either inside the same network or across networks.
• Exclusivity will be withdrawn if the average quarterly passenger load factor [PLF] is higher than 75% for four consecutive quarters, to prevent the monopoly on a route from being exploited.

UDAN 5.0 launched by Civil Aviation Ministry: About Performance Guarantee

• For each month of delay up to four months, 25% of the Performance Guarantee will be forfeited as a further incentive for rapid operationalization.
• An enforceable promise to provide a potential contractor with the resources they need and to take on all of their contractual duties is known as a performance guarantee.
• The Ministry added that after receiving the route award, airlines would need to start operating within four months.
• This deadline was formerly set at six months.
• In order to promote rapid operationalization of routes under the Scheme, it was also added that a list of airports that are ready for operation or will soon be ready for operation has been included in the scheme.
• Novation procedures for routes between operators are streamlined and encouraged.
• Novation is the process of replacing an existing contract with a new one after the contracting parties come to an agreement.

UDAN has proven to be the lifeblood of several regions, with many of them now well connected to the rest of the country. We will get closer to the goal of operationalizing 1,000 routes and 50 additional airports, heliports, and water aerodromes in the near future with the help of this new and improved version of the plan, which will increase momentum and connect new routes.