Airports Authority Of India Calls For Meeting Of UDAN Stakeholders

New Delhi: National airports operator AAI has called a "pre-bid" meeting on Friday of all interested prospective stakeholders, including airlines on the Government's ambitious regional connectivity scheme UDAN, which seeks to make flying affordable for the masses.

Airports Authority of India (AAI), which manages 125 airports, including 11 international ones', has been mandated to implement UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) scheme.

State-run auctioneer Metal and Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) would make a presentation on e-bidding process during the stakeholders' meeting on RCS, which is scheduled to take place here on Friday, sources said.

MSTC is the body which conducts the coal mine and iron ore auction.

UDAN launched by the government last month, seeks to connect small cities by air as well as make flying more affordable for the masses by capping of airfares at Rs 2,500 for one-hour duration. The scheme is a market-based mechanism in which airlines bid for seat subsidies through e-auctioning.

All such route proposals would then be offered for competitive bidding through a reverse bidding mechanism and the route would be awarded to the participant quoting the lowest VGF per seat.

Airlines operating under the RCS will get viability gap funding and a host of other benefits such as lowers taxes and airport charges to promote regional connectivity.

Under the scheme, the selected airline operator would have to provide a minimum of nine and a maximum of 40 UDAN seats (subsidized rates )on the RCS flights for operations through fixed wing aircraft and a minimum of five and a maximum of 13 seats on the flights operated by helicopters.

On each such route, the minimum frequency would be three and maximum of seven departures per week. Route networks would also be encouraged under the scheme to achieve economies of scale and optimal usage of aircraft.

Notice Inviting Proposals (NIP) for first round of bidding has already been issued by the Government recently.

The Government expects the first flight under the RCS to take off early next year.

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