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The Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a mighty scheme to make air travel affordable to everyone. Its called as UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik). The UDAN scheme is meant to provide air connectivity to tier 2 & tier 3 cities. The ambitious UDAN scheme will introduce budget regional flying by connecting small towns in India and hence also called as Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCN). The scheme will be funded by levying a nominal additional charges on the aircrafts on the bigger airports in the country. As a result of this the airfares are expected to increase a bit for the flights to and from bigger airports. The increase of the airfares on such route tickets will be not more than Rs. 60 said the Aviation Secretory RN Choubey. The scheme is introduced by the Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha. Helicopter flights are also be available under UDAN scheme at the affordable rates.
Objective of the UDAN scheme:
- To connect tier 2 and tier 3 cities via air
- To provide cost effective and affordable air travel to everyone
- To utilize 50+ undeserved airports across India
UDAN scheme fares:
- One hour of flight i.e. a distance of 400 – 500 KMs will cost Rs. 2,500 under the UDAN scheme
- Half an hour of helicopter ride will cost Rs. 2,500 under UDAN scheme and an hour of flight would cost close to Rs. 5,000
How UDAN scheme will work?
The scheme will be funded based on the nominal extra charges to the airlines operating at the bigger airports in India. It is almost certain that they will pass on this extra charges to the customers and the air fares for the domestic travel will go up a little bit. Airlines now can bid to operate the under served airports under the UDAN scheme and the successful bider will get exclusive rights to operate on those routes for 3 years. On such routes the minimum frequency will be 3 flights and maximum frequency will be 7 flights per week.
More details of the UDAN scheme:
- Ministry of Civil Aviation: http://www.civilaviation.gov.in/
- Press Information Bureau Government of India Ministry of Civil Aviation: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=15185
