Guidelines for Regulating National Services

Though domestic air transport services in the country have been deregulated, Government has laid down Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDGs) with a view to achieve better connectivity to remote and regional areas of the country. It is, however, up to the airlines to provide air services to specific places depending upon the traffic demand and commercial viability, subject to compliance of RDGs. As per the RDGs, all Scheduled Airlines who operate on Category-I routes are required to deploy 10% of the capacity deployed on these routes, on Category - II routes which connect stations in North East region, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep. Further, at least 10% of the capacity required to be deployed on Category-II routes is to be deployed for connectivity exclusively within these regions (Category -II A routes). They are also required to deploy at least 50% of the capacity deployed on Category - I routes to remaining routes i.e. Category III route.