Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. , Photo Credit: PTI
The government has launched the fifth round of Regional Connectivity Scheme- Wet To further enhance connectivity in remote and regional areas of the country.
With this, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) started the process of inviting bids from airlines for various routes under the fifth round of bidding for its regional connectivity scheme UDAN by releasing the bid document on April 21.
According to an April 21 tweet by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, only Category 2 (20-80 seats) and Category 3 (>80 seats) aircraft operations will fall under this round, with no restrictions on distance between origin and destination . , with a stage length cap of 600 km.
According to a ministry statement issued on the evening of April 21, some of the key features are that the 600 km length limit of the first phase has been waived and there is no restriction on the distance between the origin and destination of the flight; The Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to be provided will be capped at a phase length of 600 km for both priority and non-priority sectors, which was earlier capped at 500 km, and no pre-determined route will be introduced.
Only network and individual route proposals proposed by airlines will be considered and airlines will be required to submit an action/business plan in which they present their aircraft acquisition plan/availability of aircraft two months after the issue of Letter of Authorization (LOA) . Crew, slot etc. at the time of technical proposal.
The statement noted that the same route will not be awarded to the same airline more than once, whether in different networks or within the same network and added, “The exclusivity will be back when the average quarterly passenger load factor is Will be taken [PLF] more than 75% for four consecutive quarters to prevent exploitation of the monopoly on the route.”
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According to the statement, 25% of the performance guarantee will be encashed for each month of delay up to four months to further encourage prompt operations. A performance guarantee is an enforceable commitment by a corporate entity to supply necessary resources to a potential contractor and to assume all contractual obligations of the potential contractor.
The ministry also mentioned that airlines would need to start operations within four months of being granted the route. Earlier this time limit was six months.
It also said that a list of airports which are ready for operation or will be ready for operation soon have been included in the scheme to facilitate expeditious operationalization of routes under the scheme.
The innovation process for routes from one operator to another has been simplified and encouraged. Novation refers to the process of replacing an existing contract with a replacement contract, where the contracting parties reach a consensus.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in the statement, “Udan has proved to be the lifeblood of many regions which are now well-connected to places across the country. This new and stronger version of the scheme will increase the speed, add new routes.” ” , and will take us closer to the goal of operationalizing 1,000 routes and 50 additional airports, heliports and water aerodromes in the near future.”