The civil aviation ministry said out of 403 routes operated under the government’s Regional Connectivity (RC) scheme, over 300 have been affected due to the pandemic.
In four different rounds of bids conducted over the last five years, 948 routes have been awarded.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation had told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, “Out of 403 routes that have started operations so far, around 300 routes have been affected due to poor demand due to the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Its report on Wednesday.
It had also said that out of 94 RCS routes allotted in the opening round of bidding in 2017, only 22 routes were in operation.
The ministry cited several reasons for the failure of these routes, including challenging aviation business with high operating costs and low income, non-availability of aircraft, maintenance issues as well as non-availability of funds for development of works at airports. is included. ,
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