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Narendra Modi’s plan to get millions more Indians flying faces turbulence - Livemint 

Narendra Modiâs plan to get millions more Indians flying faces turbulence

Work on building new airports in small towns and upgrading existing facilities has failed to keep pace, under the UDAN regional aviation scheme

Last Published: Mon, Jun 11 2018. 01 18 PM IST
Sai Sachin Ravikumar and Aditi Shah, Reuters The UDAN regional connectivity scheme was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Shimla last year. Photo: PTI

Bengaluru/New Delhi: The slow pace of fitting out regional airports risks delaying Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious plan to launch more flights connecting smaller towns and cities and get millions more people using air travel.

UDAN is short for Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik, which loosly translates to “let the common man fly”.

But work on building new airports in small towns and upgrading existing facilities has failed to keep pace, two government officials said, and could knock off course the government’s lofty goal of bringing 100 million more passengers to the skies in the next five years.

“It is a trade-off. We either keep adding more flights or calibrate the existing ones with the capacity we have,” the official said.

The delays highlight the hurdles Modi—who has campaigned on his ability to successfully implement growth-boosting reforms—faces as he seeks re-election in 2019.

Making flying affordable

Passenger traffic in India has grown at about 20% annually in recent years, making the world’s fastest-growing aviation market lucrative for large and small planemakers.

When launching the UDAN scheme in early 2017, the government said it wanted to make flying affordable for the common man wearing simple flip-flops by reviving more than 400 unused and under-utilised airstrips in the country’s vast hinterlands.

The civil aviation ministry has given approvals, in two phases, to nearly a dozen airlines, including start-ups like Air Deccan and Air Odisha as well as established carriers like IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd), Jet Airways (India) Ltd and SpiceJet Ltd, to start flights on more than 450 routes covering 56 new airports.

“If the pace of development of smaller airports is not accelerated and it does not meet the targets, it will be a major challenge for airlines,” said Arindam Som, an analyst at India Ratings, a Fitch Group company.

Business impact

“These airports are dragging their feet,” said G.R. Gopinath, founder and chairman of Air Deccan.

Start-up airline TruJet has begun flights on all regional routes it got approval for under the programme’s first phase by taking a noon time slot from Mumbai - a period with relatively lighter air traffic, its commercial chief, Senthil Raja, said.

SpiceJet, too, has started operating on several routes.

“Today it does not prevent us from selling aircraft ... but it is certainly a challenge the government needs to pay attention to,” said Guillaume Huertas, head of sales for South Asia at ATR.

First Published: Mon, Jun 11 2018. 11 29 AM IST
Topics: UDAN regional connectivity scheme UDAN flights regional airports regional airlines

