AAI notice to airlines for delays under UDAN

Mumbai: Airports Authority of India has show-caused Air Deccan and Air Odisha for having failed to launch services under the Regional Connectivity Scheme within a stipulated time frame.

Taking note of long delays, the AAI on Tuesday gave the two airlines a month’s time to commence operations on routes bagged in the first round of bidding under the regional air connectivity scheme.

“The promoters of the two airlines who bagged routes were not in a position to start services despite several notices to them in the past. A final notice is being sent to them now to start operations within a month,” AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra said.

AAI is the nodal agency for the government’s pet project Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN), which seeks to connect unserved and under-served airports as well as make flying more affordable.

Under the first round of UDAN, as many as 70 airports, including 31 unserved and 12 under-served ones, were to be connected. Five airlines, including Air Deccan and Air Odisha, won bids to operate UDAN flights on 128 routes.

While winners of the first round were announced in March last year, many routes are yet to be operational on account of multiple factors, including certain airports yet to be fit for operations and some airlines not being fully ready.

Against this backdrop, officials said the AAI has served notices to Air Deccan and Air Odisha, asking them to commence operations on the routes awarded to them in a month’s time.

Mr. Mohapatra informed that 19 airports are already operational under UDAN and more would be coming up in the days to come.

Air Deccan and Air Odisha have bagged as many as 34 and 50 routes respectively under the first round of UDAN, but have so far jointly started operations in just three routes each.

SpiceJet, Alliance Air and Turbo Megha Airways are among other carriers that have won bids under UDAN.

“Air Deccan wrote to us on March 1 that it would not be able to start operating from the scheduled date and would let us know about the new launch date later,” a senior AAI official said.

Explaining why Air Deccan could not stick to the schedule, Captain G.R. Gopinath, chairman of Air Deccan, said, “The DGCA had placed restrictions based on the length of the runway in airports like Jamshedpur, while the airports in Rourkela and Burnpur are not yet ready.”

At Bagdogra, Capt. Gopinath said, the airline had not found a time slot that would be attractive to passengers.