Poor performance of regional airlines to be examined

Along with this, the Ministry would also examine ways to carry out restructuring of the Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDGs) which mandate Indian carriers to operate to socially- important but financially-unviable routes of the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

"It has been decided to conduct a study to examine why regional airlines are not successful in India and what needs to be done to promote regional air connectivity," official sources said.

To carry out this study, the Ministry has decided to appoint a consultancy firm to examine these issues in-depth and recommend measures to improve regional connectivity, they said, adding the outcome of the study could form the basis of a draft policy framework on the matter.

Besides restructuring RDGs, the Ministry was also contemplating asking airlines to buy smaller planes to operate flights to smaller cities with small runways.

However, industry sources say such a decision should be left to the commercial consideration of the airlines themselves and not imposed on them.

While massive plans are on the anvil to create new airports and upgrade existing ones in Tier-II and Tier-III cities in the 12th Plan period, the industry sources said regional connectivity has not been a success, despite the existence of an official policy for regional aviation.

Indian airports would require an estimated investment of a whopping Rs 67,500 crore during the 12th Plan period (2012- 2017), of which around Rs 50,000 crore is likely to be from the private sector. (more)