By Vijay Grover
“Regional Connectivity Scheme- RCS 2.0” seems to be the buzzword at the Wings India 2022. The fact that the success of the Indian Aviation Dream lies in tier II and Tier III cities resonates with the words of Mahatma Gandhi “India lives in its villages”.
The success of the Udan (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme has become the platform to the fact that India’s Civil Aviation is among the fastest-growing aviation markets globally and will be a significant growth engine to make India a $5 trillion economy. India, which has emerged as the 3rd largest aviation market, which stood at 274.05 million in FY20, is rewriting civil aviation history. For a country that was a late starter in the civil aviation sector, the growth is coming from the new routes and reaching out to far-flung areas.
Capt Sanjay Of FlyBig airlines has created a revolution in the North-Eastern states and currently operates in three states in NorthEast, covering seven cities Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Lilabari, Rupsi, Pasighat, Tezu and Agartala. The routes chosen have made a major impact on people’s lives, says Capt Sanjay Mandaviya, CMD FlyBig, “We are happy with the love that the guests in North-Eastern states shower on us, our service has been able to help them travel faster and conveniently at low cost, and they reciprocate accordingly. 20-30 minute flights have replaced road journeys of 10-12 hours, and it means a lot to them.”
At the Wings India 2022, in Hyderabad, participation in the UDAN scheme was on the agenda of nearly every airline, airport operator, and state government. According to Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, a multi-pronged approach has been adopted to take the sector to new heights.
“We have a long way to go. Our penetration is close to only 8 per cent today. In a country of 135 crore people, we have only 14.5 crores travelling by civil aviation. I believe today’s civil aviation is going to be tomorrow’s railways in terms of transport,” he said and assured the stakeholders that his ministry would be a constructive collaborator and not restrictive regulator.
“By the year 2024-25, we want to take this number to 220 airports,” he said. The excitement is visible as states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are drawing up plans to expand the number of districts they wish to connect with major metros. The success of the Belgavi airport, which has 112 weekly flights to various destinations, has motivated the Karnataka government to plan bigger to connect northern districts of the state. “We are looking at every opportunity to ensure the accessibility and connectivity is improved at a pace to achieve the goals of boosting connectivity,” says Hephsiba Rani Korlapati IAS, Joint Secretary Infrastructure Development Dept Government Of Karnataka.
“If we are targeting a city for boosting air links, its not just for tourism or any one sector, but for comprehensive development. The ripple effect on all sectors including social sectors like health and education, or other big businesses which needs faster connectivity, is enormous and rapidly growing,” says Hephsiba Rani. Karnataka has a task cut out to ensure connectivity across the 31 districts of the state. With cities like Belagavi, Hubbali, Mysuru, Kalburgi already well connected with Bengaluru, the government announced the Raichur Airport in the recent budget. The government is looking at the feasibility of making the new airports a success and functional in a real sense. The state has also come out with innovative ways to fund the project faster to make it achievable and economically viable. “For Raichur, we have already allocated 50 Cr rupees to develop it from Kalyan Karnataka Board. We are getting funds from the District Mineral Fund, and there is huge potential for cross-sectoral convergence,” says Hephsiba Rani.
Neighbouring Maharashtra is also racing to develop semi-urban airports Infrastructure. The state which has floated a new company, Maharashtra Airports Development Corporation, is working on expanding Nagpur Airport and the greenfield airports at Amaravati and Chandrapur, which have been asking for connectivity. A few weeks back, the state had put Gondia on the map, but the flight operation is already facing challenges of diversion and delays due to the lack of proper infrastructure at Gondia. Flybig airlines recently flagged the operations and operated the service between Hyderabad – Gondia- Indore hopes that the initial glitches will be sorted out soon.
Not to be left behind, states like Haryana are also looking at setting up aviation infrastructure, even though the state has New Delhi and Chandigarh airports that are widely used. The state is working on developing the Hissar Aviation Hub as a project to establish, Flying training, Regional connectivity Hub and MRO Operations.
With a growth graph of over 10% predicted in the regional routes connectivity, many airlines redraw plans to service tier 3 and tier 4 cities. The UDAN scheme presently covers 409 routes, and with new routes, aircraft and airports expected to be added soon, the scheme would have proved itself to be a game-changer in the aviation sector.