Centre holds meet on regional connectivity

Tamil Nadu and two northeastern states, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, did not participate in a stakeholders’ meeting, organised by the civil aviation ministry, to discuss suggestions for the proposed Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), Union Aviation secretary R.N. Choubey said on Friday. But the ministry sought to play it down, with Mr Choubey saying that the three states could always convey their suggestions in writing and that their non-participation did not mean they would be deprived of the benefits of the scheme. The ministry indicated it was not aware why the three states did not participate in Friday’s meeting.

“Following the release of the Draft Regional Connectivity Scheme recently, senior officials of the ministry of Civil Aviation, held broad and in-depth consultations with the stakeholders of the new scheme in the capital today,” the Civil aviation ministry said on Friday. It will examine all the suggestions received on Friday and will decide what should be incorporated. It is confident that the scheme will be ready for implementation mid-August onwards.

The government is expected to decide in a week’s time how much levy it plans to impose on airlines for domestic flight departures on major routes to fund the RCS, saying it would be a separate rule. Airlines are expected to pass on the amount to passengers who will probably end up paying a marginal amount extra while flying between metros or other major routes.

Earlier this month, the ministry had announced that it would roll out such a scheme. The RCS will be applicable on routes between a a served airport and an unserved or underserved one at distances from 200 km to 800 km. The much-publicised cap of Rs 2,500 per seat, for instance, is proposed for a distance of 500 km.

People living in very small towns and rural areas with airports/airstrips that are “unserved” (where no commercial flight operates) or “underserved” (where up to seven flights operate per week) can now hope to travel by air at a reasonable fare, with the government unveiling the draft copy of the RCS on July 1 that will cap airfares on such routes, ranging from a distance of 200 km to 800 km.

On Friday, the Aviation ministry said, “Representatives of state governments expressed their willingness to co-operate in giving support to airlines to operate from airports within their states. However, states from the North East wanted the Centre to give 100 percent financial assistance to the scheme. Representatives from airlines wanted assistance under the scheme to be extended beyond a period of three years.

Some stakeholders also wanted flexibility with regard to the distance stipulated in the Draft. They wanted the minimum distance to be 200 km and maximum distance 600 km to be decided on a case to case basis.”

It added, “The key issues discussed during the deliberations were as follows: bidding parameters to be considered while inviting proposals for interested airline operations under the scheme, exclusivity to be granted to selected airline operators for operations under the scheme, airfare caps proposed under the scheme, Viability Gap Funding (VGF) caps proposed under the scheme, minimum performance specifications to be adhered to by selected airline operator (and) provisions enabling easy entry and exit (as well as) “RCS applicability and overall implementability”.