The government has often tom-tommed its achievements in the aviator sector. The feat of building 74 airports in seven years embodied the ruling party’s self-congratulatory label. But puff pieces have been written on these airports, perhaps prematurely.
According to a report, 11 of these airports (greenfield) were new — they include nine heliports and two waterdromes — while 15 aren’t operational. The collapse of nearly half the routes launched under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) is cited as the reason.
The two waterdromes were built for seaplanes between Gujarat’s Gandhinagar and the Statue of Unity in Kevadia. However, they discontinued operations as SpiceJet faced a technical issue, the report claimed.
Even though the government announced 479 routes to revive these airports, 225 have ceased operations, the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s response told the national daily.
The routes, the daily highlighted, were awarded after a bidding process. The winning airlines were entitled to subsidies, equivalent to 50% of their seating capacity. The conditions stipulated that the airlines would sell 50% of their seats at an affordable rate of Rs 2,500/- per hour of flight, which would be borne by Indian airlines flying on non-RCS routes. These Indian airlines passed the charges on to the passengers on non-RCS flights, the daily explained. An amount of Rs 2,038 crore had been collected as RCS levy.
The scheme allocated Rs 4,500 crore to restore old airports to health. The report added that 46 airports were redeveloped by the Airports Authority of India and the rest by State governments and Public Sector Units. The government has already spent Rs 3,490 crore on this project, with the Finance Ministry approving another Rs 1,000 for three years.
Yet a bleak picture presents itself. As many as 128 routes of the 225 that ceased operations had shut down before three years. Seventy of these routes were commercially unviable, regardless of the subsidy, and 58 were cancelled owing to issues of non-compliances.
Ninety-seven routes were closed after the three-year period during which the government extended support. The airlines however weren’t equipped to function independently, which was the aim. Out of the 155 routes that completed three years, only 58 survived, which tells its own story.
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