Under the Route Dispersal Guideline (RDG) which has been in place since 1994, all Indian carriers have to deploy at least 10 per cent of their capacity to connect remote destinations, termed Category II routes, which may be commercially unviable but socially important.
With the imminent entry of no-frills airline AirAsia India in the regional aviation market and some airlines planning to target Tier-II and Tier-III cities, the government is carrying out consultations on amending the RDG, although no final decision has been taken yet in the matter, official sources said.
The Rohit Nandan Committee had suggested that Guwahati, Bagdogra, Jammu, Port Blair and Lakshadweep should be clubbed in Category-II routes as that would generate additional capacity for the airlines, most of which are bleeding.
Changes in the RDG were being formulated by officials and the airlines have not been kept in the loop, industry sources said, adding that it would be appropriate to take the airlines' views before finalising the changes.
Among the options, Civil Aviation Ministry is evaluating a seat credit system to replace the RDG, along the lines of the emissions trading system of European Union.
Earlier, there was a provision to allow airlines to sell excess seats on RDG routes, which they were not operating, to other carriers. Most of the private carriers then landed up paying Air India to operate to these destinations on their behalf. The scheme was subsequently abolished.
This had also prompted parliamentary panels to point out that Air India was being placed at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the private players.
The Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU), in fact, asked the government to make rules to penalise those airlines which were not operating 10 per cent of their capacity to such routes like the northeast, Jammu and Kashmir, Andamans and Lakshadweep.