Maharashtra’s move, this week, in becoming the first State to embrace the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) ticks a few boxes for the Centre’s ambitious plan to use civil aviation to boost tourism, jobs and balanced regional growth across the country. It also lends a fillip to India’s aim of emerging as the third largest aviation market by 2020. The concept itself, though, is not new. Under the UPA government, a Ministry of Civil Aviation report noted that States were becoming more receptive to the idea of promoting regional air connectivity. It also observed that the only way to get airlines to fly these “thin routes” would be by reducing operational costs. The report highlighted two points: the immense potential that lay in activating the nearly 450 dormant airports and airfields, and the need for a subsidy fund, which is a global norm, in keeping such routes going. A key point in that document was its optimism about India having 300-odd operational airports by 2030, from about 80 now, by tapping into the potential of regional routes. When linked to a concept such as a ‘hub and spoke’ — of route flexibility and also feeding into larger airline operators and major aviation hubs — the sky was indeed the limit.
Some of this is mirrored in the latest policy. At its heart lies the importance of Centre-State cooperation, in the form of viability gap funding, subsidised aviation fuel and a ‘controversial’ fare cap, pivotal to enabling the scheme’s success. But there could be some air pockets ahead. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju’s remark that States would have to be prepared to “take some haircuts” by providing free land and operational infrastructure, and that the Centre would have to agree to forego excise on aviation fuel and service tax on tickets signals that the scheme may end up testing the actual commitment of governments both at the Union and State levels. With private airlines having evinced interest but not having expressly committed themselves so far to the RCS, there is also the issue, going by experience, of whether the burden of operating such routes could end up ultimately falling on Air India. The episodes of the ‘now-on, now-off’ air services to Mysuru and Puducherry, for instance, are illustrative and instructive. These operations had the backing of the respective governments but never reached ‘cruise altitude’. Given the scale of the scheme, there is also the issue of providing air traffic control services. With mounting worries over air safety and the alarming rise in ‘near-miss’ incidents, there can be no room for compromise on this vital component of the aviation industry.
