Preparation to bring life to the empty airport
The central government is making a big plan to restart those airports, which are lying idle despite spending billions of rupees. There are preparations to provide financial incentives to airlines to operate flights at these ‘ghost airports’. The purpose of this move is also to justify those expensive infrastructure projects, which are currently of no use. This entire exercise will be done under the government’s existing ‘Udaan’ scheme, which aims to increase regional air connectivity.
Why airports worth crores remained empty?
The government had launched the ‘Udaan’ (Ude Desh Ke Aam Nagrik) scheme in 2016. This scheme also helped in bringing air revolution in the country. Through this, 649 new air routes were added and 93 small airports were made operational, where earlier there were only basic facilities.
But, the challenge now is those new and expensive airports, where despite having adequate facilities, there are no passengers. For example, many newly inaugurated airports like Azamgarh and Muzaffarpur have excellent air-side and city-side facilities, but no passengers are flying from there.
Airlines will get subsidy
Under the new scheme, the government will give a monthly subsidy to airlines to fly on these idle routes. In return, airlines will have to keep ticket prices cheap on selected routes.
- In a way, this subsidy will work to bridge the gap between regular fare and concessional fare.
- The payment made to the airlines will also depend on how many seats are sold in that flight.
This step is being taken so that the airlines do not suffer financial loss in flying on these routes and the common people can get the benefit of cheap tickets.
Now you will get benefit without bidding
According to sources, major changes are also being made in the way this scheme is implemented. In the current system, airlines had to bid to get subsidy on a route. But, the proposed changes include the option of ‘direct incentives’ along with an auction-based approach. This means that for some routes, direct subsidy can be given to companies without any bidding process.
Jam on one side, silence on the other side
This problem is quite serious in India. Out of the 140 airports in the country, there are at least a dozen where not a single passenger arrived between December and March. On one hand, there is huge crowd and congestion at big urban airports like Mumbai and Delhi. On the other hand, many rural and small town centers remain deserted despite costing billions.
The government wants to remove this imbalance through this new form of ‘Udaan’ scheme. To deal with this problem of demand, the Ministry has prepared a complete blueprint, which will soon be presented before the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).