UDAN May Hit Air Pocket With Mumbai Airport Giving Only Eight SlotsĀ
The government's ambitious UDAN scheme may hit air pocket with the Mumbai airport authorities allocating only eight slots for the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) flights.
The Civil Aviation Ministry had sought 20 slots from the Mumbai International Airport Ltd. (MIAL) for operating flights to unserved and under-served airports from the country's second busiest aerodrome.
MIAL was able to provide only eight slots since it is facing severe slot constraints, a source told Press Trust of India. The airport has been unable to accommodate the request of even scheduled carriers for more flights, the source added.
The GVK-Airport Authority of India run Mumbai airport, which has become the world's busiest airport with a single-runway operations, handled 837 flights a day or one in 65 seconds on an average in fiscal 2017, overtaking London's Gatwick airport that had 757 flights a day. It handled 45.2 million passengers in the last fiscal, accounting for 18.6 percent of the total air traffic in the country.
Also Read: Round 2 Of UDAN: Government May Ease Entry Barriers To Get More Carriers On Board
We also have request from the government to provide slot for a flight to Shirdi airport, which is expected to commence operations soon, the source said adding that the government is well-aware of the slot crunch at the Mumbai airport. When contacted, MIAL spokesperson was not available for comment.
The 'Ude Desh ka aam Nagrik' (UDAN) scheme, under which airfares have been kept at Rs 2,500 for a one hour flights, is aimed at making the air travel more affordable and providing air services to the hinterland.
In the first round of UDAN bidding, five airlines won bids to operate on 128 routes connecting 70 airports, of which 31 are unserved.
Also Read: IndiGo Looks Beyond Airbus To Tap Into Government's UDAN Scheme
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