Centre holds stakeholders' consultation on regional connectivity

The centre today met the states and airlines to discuss plans for the ambitious regional connectivity scheme, which will result in improved connectivity of smaller airports by airlines and put India's hinterland on the country's aviation roadmap.

Representatives from all states except that of Tamil Nadu, Manipur and Madhya Pradash attended the meet in which various issues were discussed.

Airline bosses including IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh, SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh, Air Asia Amar Abrol and Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani attended the meet.

The Narendra Modi-led government on Friday revealed its ambitious regional connectivity scheme under which airfares will be capped at Rs 2,500 for up to one-hour flights on unserved and under-served routes.

Minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha said that with demand for air travel increasing there will be ample opportunity for airlines to cash in it. "There is no lack of demand, with this scheme traffic in regional cities like Surat, Bhubaneswar, Mysuru will increase, there is business opportunity in it," Sinha said.

The scheme, mooted in the civil aviation policy to connect smaller cities, has been put up for stakeholders' consultations, including state governments, airlines and airport operators. The stakeholders have been given three weeks to submit their comments on the draft scheme, which would be finalised by August.

"There was not a single state who did not commit support to the state, in fact everyone wanted to participate in that, now the ball is in the court of entrepreneurs and airlines " said civil aviation secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey.

An airline executive attending the meet though said the government will need to upgrade the infrastructure if the scheme has to be executed successfully. "Where will the place come from, our airports are choked," the executives said.

Secretary Choubey said that the government will upgrade 60 airstrips in the first phase to make them fit for flying. Out of the 60 identified airports, 10 are owned by Airport Authority of India (AAI) while 50 are owned by the state government. The draft scheme identifies 406 airports and airstrips for which the airlines will have to participate in a reverse bidding process which means the one which bids for lowest funding will be awarded the route. Airlines which win routes through bids would enjoy exclusivity rights for first three years.

The airlines however wanted the subsidy period to increase from the current time period of three years. The government said that it will consider all the demands of the stakeholders before the policy is finalised.