Govt may cancel routes awarded to Air Deccan and Air Odisha under UDAN

The government may cancel the route awarded to Air Deccan and Air Odisha under the regional connectivity scheme, known as UDAN, if they fail to start new routes by the end of October.

The two airlines, plagued by a lack of funds and pilots, have been able to start flights in only 10 of the 84 routes that were awarded.“The government has sent a show cause notice to both the airlines. If they fail to come up with a concrete response and future business plan of operating the routes, the bids will be null and void,” said a senior ministry official.

Shaishav Shah, managing director of Air Deccan and Air Odisha, agreed the companies had received a notice from the government but said he would be able to start 12 new routes by the end of this month.

“I am in talks to lease two turboprops and we will start routes on Delhi network and Chennai network by end of this month. We have informed the government about our plans,” Shah said.

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Under the first round of UDAN, as many as 70 airports, including 31 unserved and 12 under-served ones, were to be connected. Five airlines won bids to operate UDAN flights on 128 routes with the two airlines bagging 84 routes.

The airlines said they had not been able to begin operations because many of the airports awarded under the scheme were not yet ready. However, government officials refuted the claim, saying the airlines didn’t start operations even from airports that were fully ready.

A case in point is Shillong, from where Air Deccan started operations from in August, but abruptly stopped only after 10 days. “We were not given any explanation why services were stopped. Shillong airport is fully ready. Air India is operating regular services from the airport. So, their reasoning is not valid,” said Manoj Kumar Nayak, director of Shillong airport. 

After cancelling the routes of the two airlines, a second government official said, the routes will be bid out again. “We expect that serious airline operators will also fly the routes,” he said.

Experts said the lack of planning in terms of choice of routes and manpower was the main reason behind the bad shape of the airlines. Without much available capital, the two airlines leased four 19-seater Beechkraft 1900-D.

Of the production since 2002, Beechkraft 1900 is a maintenance nightmare for any airline. Spare parts are hard to find, and there is no adequate support system. Engine manufacturers have no incentive to create an ecosystem, with just a handful of aircraft flying. Even engineers and pilots do not see a bright career prospect in training for an aircraft that is not much in use.

“Almost all the pilots are expats. They have to be hired at a much higher cost. And then there is a waiting period for security clearance, sometimes of up to 20 days. Worse, these expat pilots are interested to be based only in metro cities. So, they quit frequently,” an Air Deccan executive said.