AERA exempts RCS flights from landing, parking charges

Tariff regulator AERA has ordered all major airport operators, including those run under the defence ministry, to exempt flights operated under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) from landing and parking charges.

Airfares for all passenger seats operated on flights under the regional connectivity scheme, will also not be subjected to any levy or charge imposed by the airport operators, Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) said in its latest order.

Under the regional connectivity scheme UDAN, kickstarted last week, fares have been capped at Rs 2,500 for one-hour flights. The scheme also provides for various benefits including no airport charges and three-year exclusivity on the routes.
 

After the first round of bidding for the RCS routes, five airlines including Air India's regional arm Alliance Air, Deccan Aviation, SpiceJet and Air Odisha have been awarded 128 routes connecting over 30 unserved airports.

The operators of major airports whether run by AAI, state governments, private entities or the Ministry of Defence shall "not levy landing and parking charges or any other charge subsuming a charge for such aspects in future, said AERA in its order.

It also said that airfares for all passenger seats on RCS flights will not be subject to any levy or charges imposed by the operators of major airports including charges such as passengers service fee, development fee as well as user development fee.

Under UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme, the operators would be extended viability gap funding -- for which money is partly raised through a levy of up to Rs 8,500 on flights operating in major routes like Delhi and Mumbai.

As many as 70 airports, including 31 unserved and 12 under-served ones, would be connected with the UDAN flights.

The airline companies will operate 19 to 78-seater aircraft on the allotted routes and 50 per cent of the seats on every flight will have a fare cap of Rs 2,500 per seat per hour.

These flights would connect airports spread across over 20 states and union territories including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.