• First flight to the newly constructed Hisar airport in Haryana from Chandigarh was flagged off under the Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN) of the Government of India. 

    • The flagging off marks the operationalization of 54th airport under the UDAN scheme.

    • To date, 307 routes and 54 airports including 5 heliports and 2 Water Aerodromes have been operationalized under the UDAN scheme.

    • Belonging to the Government of Haryana, Hisar airport is a public licensed airport that is suitable for 18 seat type aircraft.

    • The development of the Hisar airport was undertaken by the MoCA as it aligns with the dual objectives of the UDAN scheme; "letting the common citizen of the country fly" & make air travel affordable and widespread in the country.”

    • Subsequently, the Government of India had sanctioned INR 28.60 crores for the development of the interim civil aviation operations.

    • The upgrade included the construction of the new terminal building, hangars, strengthening of the runway, installation of night-flying equipment, ATC, security equipment, etc at the Hisar airport.

    • The airline Aviation Connectivity & Infrastructure Developers Pvt. Ltd (Air Taxi) was awarded the Hisar – Chandigarh – Hisar route under the UDAN 4 bidding process.

    • The airline has become the first startup airline of the country to assist the nation with Air Taxi services.

    • These UDAN flights will reduce the journey time between Hisar to Chandigarh from 4.50 hours to a comfortable 45 minutes’ journey that too at an affordable fare since financial incentives in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) is being provided from the Centre, State governments & airport operators to selected airlines to encourage operations from unserved and underserved airports under the scheme.

    • This air connectivity will fulfill the aspirations of the people of Haryana and Chandigarh. Many people travel frequently between these two cities for personal as well as professional purposes.

    • Hisar is the administrative headquarters of the Hisar district of Hisar division in the state of Haryana.

    • The place is India's largest galvanized iron manufacturing city. The commencement of the flight operations on the route will provide impetus to the local economy & enhance the aerial connectivity of the region.

Salient Features of UDAN

    • The regional connectivity scheme will be applicable on route length between 200 to 800 km with no lower limit set for hilly, remote, island and security sensitive regions.

    • The Central government will provide concessions to the tune of 2 per cent excise on Value Added Tax (VAT) and service tax at 1/10th the rate and liberal code sharing for regional connectivity scheme airports.

    • A Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF) will be created to fund the scheme via a levy on certain flights. States are expected to contribute 20 per cent to the fund.

    • For balanced regional growth, allocations will be spread equitably across 5 regions - North, West, South, East and North East with a cap of 25 percent.

    • Market-based reverse bidding mechanism to determine least VGF to select the airline operator with the right to match to the initial proposer. The government said VGF will be reduced if passenger load factor remains high and will be discontinued after 3 years when route becomes self-sustainable.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)