UDAN


UDAN-RCS, UDAN is a regional airport development and "Regional Connectivity Scheme" of Government of India, with the objective of "letting the common citizen of the country fly", aimed at making air travel affordable and widespread, to boost inclusive national economic development, job growth and air transport infrastructure development of all regions and states of India. At the beginning of the scheme, out of total 486 airports, 406 were participating unserved airports, 27 were well served airports out of 97 non-RCS airports and 12 were operational airports out of 18 participating underserved regional operational airports with regular fixed-wing scheduled flights. UDAN scheme will add to this number by expediting the development and operationalisation of India's potential-target of nearly 425 unserved, underserved, and mostly underdeveloped regional airports with regular scheduled flights.
The scheme has two components. The first component is to develop new airports and enhance the existing regional airports to increase the number of operational airports for scheduled civilian flights from 70 to at least 150 airports with regular scheduled flights. Initially more than 100 underserved and unserved regional airports will be developed by December 2018, for which the initial funding of for the enhancement of 50 regional airports was approved in May 2017. Out of the total 70 airports included in round-I, 43 are regional airports to be newly operationalised. RCS-Udan operations have commenced from 13 regional airports and additional 12 regional airports are ready to receive flights. 18 regional airports still require significant upgrade. The second component is to add several hundred financially viable, capped-airfare, new regional flight routes to connect more than 100 underserved and unserved airports in smaller towns with each other as well as with well served airports in bigger cities by using "Viability Gap Funding" where needed. Initially, three separate rounds of bidding for the award of routes will be concluded by the end of 2018. Union government share of "Viability Gap Funding" is from the cess applied to flights to popular routes to main cities and respective state governments have also offered additional benefits to the flight operators to make UDAN-RCS viable.
UDAN-RCS Round-I concluded in April 2017, 5 airlines companies were awarded 128 fixed-wing flight routes to 70 airports, several of which have already become operational by November 2017 and most of remaining routes will become operational by 15 December 2017. UDAN-RCS Round-II results will be awarded in late December 2017, from among the 141 proposals received for 502 new regional routes from 17 airlines and helicopter companies to operate flight services.
Number of aircraft jumped 38% to 548 in December 2017 from 395 in 2014 and 50 aircraft are being added every year. Subsequent phases with inclusion of seaplanes will boost the number of potential landing sites from nearly 500 airports to over five lakh waterbodies as well as more locations along India's 7,000 km coastline. SpiceJet has placed a US$400 million order for 100 of these 12-seater amphibian seaplanes.
UDAN-RCS is both enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of India schemes, such as Bharatmala, Sagarmala, Dedicated Freight Corridors, Industrial corridor, BharatNet, Digital India and Make in India, National e-Governance Plan, Startup India and Standup India.

The UDAN scheme

The UDAN Scheme is a key component of the Prime Narendra Modi's National Civil Aviation Policy which was released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 15 June 2016. The scheme will be jointly funded by the central government and state governments, several states have come on board by signing the "Memorandum of Understanding" with the union government for this scheme. UDAN RCS will connect an unspecified number of new regional routes, by operationalising 100 regional airports by the end of 2018-2019 financial year, with a target of 13 lakh annual passenger seats, requiring annual INR200 crore Viability Gap Funding. The frequency of flights must be minimum 3 and maximum 7 per week from the same airport.
India has 394 unserved and 16 underserved airports; out of a total of these 410 potential-target unserved and underserved regional airports, INR4500 Crore has been approved in 2016-2017 union budget to revive and further develop 50 airports in the smaller regional towns between 2017 and 2020, 15 airports during 2017–18, another 15 airports during 2018–19, and 20 more airports during 2019–20. A total of 75 airports were operationalised for the civilian flights in India since independence, government has newly operationalised additional 36 regional airports for the civilian flights including 3 civil enclave within army airports, with regularly scheduled flights, within the single financial year of 2016–2017, with the target to complete cumulative total of 50 operational regional airports by the end of 2018–2019, and eventually operationalise a cumulative total of 100 regional airports by December 2018.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi launched the scheme on 27 April 2017 by flagging off the inaugural regional flights between Delhi and Shimla, and also between Kadapa-Hyderabad-Nanded.

Concessions to operators

The scheme will run for 10 years and can be extended thereafter.

From Central government

Following concessions from the Government of India:
Following concessions from the participating state governments at their respective UDAN-RCS airports:
Airport operators must agree to provide the following concessions in order to participate in UDAN-RCS scheme:
Cargo flights will be given similar benefits except no "Value Gap Funding" will be provided.

UDAN-RCS Fares

For the fixed-wing aircraft there is a cap of maximum fare of INR2,500 per hour of flight for the 50% of the seats, connecting unserved and underserved regional airports, remaining 50% seats will be priced at market rate. Capped RCS fares will also be graded based on distance, e.g. INR1,420 for a distance of 151–175 km, INR1,500 for a distance of 176–200 km, and so on, with a ceiling of maximum INR3,500 fare for a total distance of 800 km or more.
For the helicopter services maximum fare is also capped at INR2,500 for every 30-minute leg of flight. Capped helicopter fare will be graded on the time of flight, e.g. INR2,500 for a flight of 0 to 30 minutes, INR2,900 for a flight of 31 to 35 minutes, and so on, with a ceiling of maximum INR5,000 fare for a total flight duration of 60 minutes or more.

Viability Gap Funding (VGF)

The scheme entails making the routes financially viable, without insisting on the financial viability of the regional airports, by lowering the cost of flight operations and through financial support in the form of Viability Gap Funding. VGF will be available to flight operators on specific routes for the first 3 years of operation.
The demand-driven revival and enhancement of the regional airports with financially viable commercial flight routes is based on the combination of seeking firm proposals from Airlines for the names of airports they wish to fly to and MoU-bound commitment from the state governments for providing various concessions for the airport operations, such as state tax concessions, free land and security, etc. Participating states, Northeast states and Union Territories are required to sign the MoU with the union governments to share the 20% and 10% burden of VGF respectively.
To make the routes viable for commercial airlines, the union government offers flexible code-sharing arrangements, reduced excise on value-added tax on fuel and service tax. Airports, some owned by the Airports Authority of India and others by the respective state governments, will not charge the landing and parking charges and terminal navigation landing charges.
Airlines will be given a Value Gap Funding raised from the RCS levy. Starting from 2017, the airfare cap and VGF in this 10-year scheme will be revised quarterly, based on Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers.

UDAN-RCS Levy

RCS subsidy will be raised by levying a cess, which will be revised periodically, on the flight between main trunk routes connecting major cities. Starting from 1 June 2017, it is initially at a flat rate of INR5,000 per flight, translating into roughly INR30 per passenger.

Impact of STOL, Seaplanes, Ski and Bushplanes on UDAN-RCS

While UDAN phase-I had focussed on fixed-wing aircraft, Phase-II included helicopters also. Subsequent phases were supposed to include STOL seaplanes and ski and bush planes operating from STOLports. On 9 December 2017, SpiceJet conducted seaplane trials using a Quest Kodiak aircraft, in association with Japan's Setouchi Holdings, who owned Quest Aircraft company LLC at that time. SpiceJet was planning to buy 100 Quest Kodiak amphibian seaplanes for US$400 million, including long-term parts and maintenance The trials were conducted from Girgaum Chowpatty off the Mumbai coast with Union minister Nitin Gadkari on board. At the occasion, Gadkari claimed that seaplanes had the potential to revolutionise air transport in the country, possibly opening up many more destinations by enhancing the potential pool of landing sites from nearly 500 airports to over five lakh waterbodies and thousand more locations along India's 7,000 km long coastline. He said that the Civil Aviation Ministry and Water and River Resources Ministry would soon formulate rules for the seaplane operations along the lines of those in nations like United States, Canada and Japan. A few days later on 12 December 2017, Prime Minister Modi also rode a Quest Kodiak operated from Sabarmati River to Dharoi Dam.
In 2019, the third round of the UDAN scheme awarded 18 air routes connecting six water aerodrome sites to be connected by seaplanes. The water aerodrome sites are Guwahati river front, Nagarjuna Sagar, Sabarmati river front, Shatrunjay Dam, Statue of Unity and Umrangso Reservoir.

UDAN-RCS Connectivity by Rounds

Bidding process

aims to operationalise, hundreds of routes in several rounds of UDAN-RCS, from at least 100 regional airports by the end of 2018-2019 financial year. AAI will periodically publish the updated list of participating airports and helipads, with collaboration from their owners, such as central govt, state govt, commercial and private parties, and in addition any entity can list their airport or helipad with the government for this scheme. Three rounds of bidding for operationalisation of new routes will be conducted in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 financial years, more rounds of bidding will follow till the end of 2018-2019 fy. Airlines and helicopter service providers will bid for the routes with at least nine seats and a maximum of 40 seats for the fixed-wing aircraft and a minimum of 5 seats and a maximum of 13 seats for the helicopters. To ensure the sustainability of the routes by lowering the commercial risk, these "specific" routes will be awarded on an exclusive basis to the winning parties. Preference is given to the bidder who bid for zero-VGF, for example, in phase-I SpiceJet bid was zero-VGF, and in Phase-II SpiceJet and IndiGo bids were zero-VGF.

UDAN-RCS Round-I (2017, April)

UDAN-RCS Round-I: 128 new regional fixed-wing routes from 70 airports, including 27 currently well-served metro airports and 43 regional airports, were awarded to 5 fixed-wing airlines on 27 April 2017. Five airlines are Air Odisha, Air Deccan, Turbo Megha Airways, Alliance Air and SpiceJet. Several routes are already operational on 13 December 2017 and most of remaining routes all to be operated by Air Decaan and Air Odisha will become operational by 23 December 2017 and 31 December respectively. SpiceJet was the only bidder with zero-VGF.

UDA-RCS Round-II (2017, December)

UDAN-RCS Round-II: 502 new regional fixed-wing and helicopter routes were bid in 196 proposals to connect 126 airports and heliports. Second round results will be awarded in late December 2017. SpiceJet and IndiGo are bidders with zero-VGF.

UDAN-RCS Round-III 25 January 2019

UDAN-RCS Round-III: The central government has received bids for 111 routes from 15 airlines under the third round of auction for the UDAN scheme. SpiceJet and IndiGo has bid for 37 routes and 20 routes in the third round of auctions. Ghodawat Enterprises Private Limited has bid for total of 15 routes in this round.
The Centre did not include chopper routes under the third round of auctions as there have already been.'

UDA-RCS Round-IV (tbd)

UDAN-RCS Round-IV: also known as "PHASE-IV" Started on Dec 3rd, 2019. In this phase, The Viability Gap Funding has been revised. The funding that was provided for Category 2 and 3 air crafts '' has now been enhanced to all flights in the states of HP, Uttarakhand, J&K, North Eastern states and the islands. Also, the phase will allow operation of helicopter and sea planes. The phase also plans to promote short-haul routes, meaning no monetary support will be given to operators with stages more than 600 km.

UDA-RCS Round-V (tbd)

UDAN-RCS Round-V: Will be launched soon.

UDA-RCS Round-VI (2019, tbd)

UDAN-RCS Round-VI: Will be launched in 2019.

Summary status table

RoundFixed-wing / HelicopterRoutes AwardedTotal portsUnserved portsUnderserved portsWell-served portsWinners
# of airlines / providers		Operational
status
R1
'		Fixed-wing128703112275
Air Odisha-50,
Air Deccan-34,
Trujet-18,
Alliance Air-15,
SpiceJet-11.
R1
'		HelicopterNANANANANANA
R1
'		WaterportsNANANANANANA
R2
'		Fixed-wing32578291336
R2
'		Helicopter31
R2
'		WaterportsNANANANANANA
R3
'		Fixed-wing
R3
'		Helicopter
R3
'		Waterports
R4
'		Fixed-wing
R4
'		Helicopter
R4
'		Waterports
R5
'		Fixed-wing
R5
'		Helicopter
R5
'		Waterports
R6
'		Fixed-wing
R6
'		Helicopter
R6
'		Waterports

Issues

Poor infrastructure including the lack of operational readiness of airports in remote areas and lack of availability of bays in the private airports in the large metro cities, shortage of pilots, lack of favourable rules and still pending reforms in DGCA and AAI rules and regulations are the main hurdles, most of these the government is responsible for. Situation will get worse as airlines plan to add 900 aircraft, such as IndiGo 448, SpiceJet 157, GoAir 119, AirAsia 60, Air India 19, Zoom Air 19, Vistara 5 and TruJet 6. AAI announced that as the part of its infrastructure upgrade plans over next 4 years it will add 273 bays at 24 major airports against the industry requirement of 300 overnight parking bays at 30 airports in next 5 years. The solution lies in the policy intervention, such as reserving at least 25% bays for the regional routes at the metro airports.

Criticisms

The Regional Connectivity scheme has faced several criticisms for failing to create a proper ecosystem for operators of small aircraft.
A 2019 analysis by Outlook of the first two phases of RCS routes notes that the success rate of UDAN was less than 20 per cent. Of the 440-odd air routes allotted to 14 major and fledgling airlines under the two phases of UDAN, not more than 40 to 60 routes were operating regularly. This was because smaller operators such as Zoom Air, Trujet, Pinnacle Airlines, Heritage and AAA Aviation had succumbed to operational issues. Industry experts pointed out several operational, technical, procedural and financial problems in the scheme that failed to create a proper ecosystem for smaller operators due to which the operational costs of the operators of small aircraft went so high that the government subsidy could not compensate. The scheme hence benefited only the operators of larger aircraft like the ATR 72 and the Airbus A320.
A close examination of the distribution of successful UDAN routes by operator, shows most of the successful routes have come from large operators like SpiceJet and IndiGo. Both these airlines have chosen to not take the Viability Gap Funding subsidy, but are instead leveraging the scheme strategically towards gaining additional slots for themselves at congested Tier-1 airports and gaining monopoly status on routes.
Aviation consultancy firm CAPA India had predicted that the success of the scheme would depend on the participation established airlines, since in its current form, UDAN does not make a business case for small and independent operators who cannot benefit from the economies of scale. In its report, “Indian Aviation Outlook for FY2019", CAPA India pointed out that "the chances of failure of regional airlines operating older aircraft, dispersed across multiple stations without rigorous demand assessment, and in the absence of a maintenance ecosystem is significant". However, UDAN cannot run without small aircraft operators as only small aircraft can land and take off from the majority of the 400 airports that the scheme intends to bring online.
The scheme also faced criticism for the financing model it had adopted. A viability gap funding structure, where a surcharge was levied on tickets on existing routes, which would be used to refund part of the ticket costs for the airlines flying on UDAN route, was adopted which didn't go down well with various quarters.
Critics have also pointed out issues in Scheme execution such as AAI's selection of airports that lack supporting economic activity. Leisure and native traffic alone will not stimulate demand at small airports. Demand for air travel is created and sustained by the presence of industries and the services sector. Critics blame faulty planning of the AAI and political influence. Demand surveys have failed to correctly predict future passenger traffic demand.