The Ministry of Civil Aviation said as many as 300 of the 403 routes operationalised under the regional connectivity (RC) scheme of the government have been hit following the pandemic.
In four different rounds of biddings carried out in the past five years, as many as 948 routes have been awarded.
“Among 403 routes that have commenced operations so far, nearly 300 routes have been affected due to poor demand on account of COVID-19 pandemic situation,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation had told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture which tabled its report on Wednesday.
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It had also said that of the 94 RCS routes that were allocated in the inaugural round of bidding in 2017, only 22 routes were in operation.
The Ministry has cited several reasons for the failure of these routes, including challenging aviation business that involves high operational costs and low earnings, non-availability of planes, maintenance issues as well as non-availibility of funds for carrying out development of works at airports.