Air Odisha Unlikely To Be Awarded Routes Under UDAN 3

New Delhi: Private carriers such as Air Odisha and Air Deccan are unlikely to be awarded routes under phase III of the regional connectivity scheme (UDAN) because of their precarious financial conditions. The former was reported to be among the players who bid in the initial rounds to operate in some sectors in Odisha.

“Air Odisha and Air Deccan are not being considered, at present, for routes under UDAN 3,” news portal moneycontrol reported on Thursday, quoting Union Civil Aviation secretary R N Choubey.

The existing financial conditions make it difficult for the government to consider both of them as suitable airlines, he said adding they would like to see if the airlines have necessary capability to undertake such flights because they have not kept up with the commitment which they had given during UDAN 1 and 2.

The licenses of both these carriers were terminated in November last year by Airports Authority of India (AAI) due to “infrequent flying and delayed operations”. Jharsuguda in Odisha was one of the towns hit by termination order. The Veer Surendra Sai Airport had recently been inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, both Air Odisha and Air Deccan managed to fly only 3,000 and 1,000 passengers, respectively between July and November 2018 to the routes allotted to them.

Moneycontrol claimed that the government had only opened their technical bids while considering bids for UDAN 3 and declared their financial bids “invalid”.

The process for the third round of bidding by airlines under UDAN 3 got over in end December, 2018 and out of the 111 routes airline opertors bid for, 10 were for Odisha.

For Jeypore and Utkela, only one operator showed interest while the rest were for Jharsuguda and Rourkela.

The government, in its quest to make flying more affordable for the masses, had in 2016 announced the Udan scheme wherein the fares were capped at Rs 2,500 for a one- hour journey for connecting smaller towns.