Hisar Airport Inaugurated Under RCS-UDAN

Hisar Airport Inaugurated Under RCS-UDAN

The Hisar airport in Haryana from Chandigarh was inaugurated under the Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN) of the Government of India. The inauguration was attended by the senior officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) & Airport Authority of India (AAI).

The flagging off marks the operationalization of 54th airport under the UDAN scheme. To date, 307 routes and 54 airports including 5 heliports and 2 Water Aerodromes have been operationalized under the UDAN scheme.

What is Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) scheme

UDAN-RCS, UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) is a regional airport development and "Regional Connectivity Scheme" (RCS) of Government of India, with the objective of "letting the common citizen of the country fly", aimed at making air travel affordable and widespread, to boost inclusive national economic development, job growth and air transport infrastructure development of all regions and states of India. The objectives of this scheme are

• Create affordable yet economically viable and profitable flights on regional routes.
• Development of remote areas and enhancing trade and commerce and tourism expansion.
• Employment creation in the aviation sector.

Key Features of UDAN scheme

• The scheme will be jointly funded by the central government and state governments, several states have come on board by signing the "Memorandum of Understanding" with the union government for this scheme.
• Under the scheme, airlines have to cap airfares for 50% of the total seats at Rs. 2,500 per hour of flight.
• This would be achieved through (1) a financial stimulus in the form of concessions from Central and State governments and airport operators and (2) Viability Gap Funding– A government grant provided to the airlines to bridge the gap between the cost of operations and expected revenue.
• The partner State Governments (other than North Eastern States and Union Territories where contribution will be 10 %) would contribute a 20% share to this fund.
• Regional Connectivity Fund would be created to meet the viability gap funding requirements under the scheme.The RCF levy per departure will be applied to certain domestic flights.

Phases of UDAN scheme

UDAN 1.0 and 2.0: Under the 1st phase, 5 airlines companies were awarded 128 flight routes to 70 airports (including 36 newly made operational airports). During RCS-UDAN version 1.0 & 2.0, 66 airports were identified and 31 heliports (28 unserved heliports and 3 unserved airports).

UDAN 3.0:  In 2018, the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced 73 underserved and unserved airports. During UDAN version 3.0, to increase the tourism potential at the coastal areas, Tourism routes in coordination with Ministry of Tourism and Seaplanes for connecting Water Aerodromes were included.

UDAN 4.0: UDAN 4.0 seeks to offer priority routes connecting Bilaspur and Ambikapur airports in Chhattisgarh.