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In an attempt to incentivise airline operators so that they fly to cities and towns with poor or no air connectivity, the government is planning to permit non-scheduled operators (NSOPs) to publish their schedules and operate regular flights, provided they operate within the 87 identified small cities and towns. They have been allowed to operate to any one metro city but they cannot have a base or hub there.
Under the current policy, NSOPs can fly to various destinations in the country but cannot publish a schedule.
The government has also decided to liberalise the policy for conversion of regional scheduled airlines, like Air Costa, to national scheduled airlines within a period of three years, provided they connect to regional and remote destinations.
The move will help get more aircraft into the network to serve smaller cities and towns by bringing in planes that are used by NSOPs as charters. Now they can also publish a schedule and pick up passengers on a regular basis by taking a scheduled commuter permit. This permit will allow them to fly scheduled flights across the country, though they cannot have a hub or base in any of the six metro cities.
The draft norms have made major changes to an earlier policy cleared by the United Progressive Alliance government. That policy had identified only 52 cities and towns and had no clause on converting NSOPs into scheduled commuter airlines. It also had not specified a formula for NSOPs and regional airlines that wanted to trade in credits for flying to these routes with larger scheduled airlines.
According to the revised guidelines, the equity or paid-up capital requirement for a scheduled commuter airline will be Rs 2 crore for up to two aircraft, Rs 5 crore for three to five aircraft, Rs 10 crore for six to 10 aircraft and Rs 15 crore for more than 10 aircraft. The size of the plane has still not been fixed.
Scheduled commuter airlines, however, have to operate at least four movements per week on any one or more regional routes. Scheduled commuter airlines might undertake any other operation, provided they comply with their scheduled operations. They could operate in any area or region but to or from only one of the metro cities.
A senior official in the civil aviation ministry said: "The policy is aimed at providing a framework for scheduled and non-scheduled operators to enter into commercial arrangements. The obligations outlined for SOPs (scheduled operators) for capacity deployment to regional and remote areas can be performed by NSOPs if they are allowed to operate scheduled flights. The intention is to increase utilisation of aircraft available with NSOPs."
The new guidelines will enable large scheduled carriers like IndiGo, Jet Airways and Go Air to purchase miles (or credits) from the NSOPs and regional carriers to meet their commitment under the route dispersal policy to deploy six per cent of their capacity on metro routes to 87 identified smaller cities and towns and also on routes within the state of Jammu & Kashmir (Srinagar, Jammu and Leh). The NSOPs that have aircraft with capacity to fly 20 passengers or less will be given four credits per passenger kilometre flown, compared with the 1.5 credits given to larger scheduled carriers flying bigger planes. The NSOPs and regional carriers could trade these credits and larger carriers could buy those to meet their commitments under the route dispersal guidelines.
The civil aviation ministry, which has prepared a draft of the revised policy on air connectivity to regional and remote areas, has asked stakeholders to communicate their comments by September 4. "The broad objective of the policy is to increase penetration of air connectivity to regional areas in a viable manner. The policy will incentivise airlines for connecting 87 identified destinations where infrastructure exists but which are underserved or unserved," added the ministry official. Once cleared, the ministry will announce the new policy.
Additionally, the revised draft guidelines propose to incentivise airlines flying to these towns and cities by waiving landing, parking and route navigation and facilitation (RNFC) charges, passenger service fee (PSF), fuel throughput and any other charge levied by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at specific airports for three years from the date of effect of the policy. Private and charter aircraft operators will not be able to avail of these concessions, except when their aircraft are leased by national scheduled airlines or scheduled commuter airlines for carrying out scheduled operations.
These revised norms will replace the route dispersal guidelines first notified in March 1994.
Further, to facilitate ease of route planning and development, the ministry has adopted a graded approach for airlines to meet obligations specified under the revised route dispersal guidelines. Airlines will be required to meet 70 per cent of the obligation in the summer schedule of 2015 and 80 per cent in the winter schedule; 90 per cent will have to be met in the summer schedule of 2016 and 100 per cent by the winter schedule of that year.
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