Mission Lifeline Udan

It is a regional airport development and “Regional Connectivity Scheme” (RCS) of Government of India, with the objective of “letting the common citizen of the country fly”, aimed at making air travel affordable and widespread, to boost inclusive national economic development, job growth and air transport infrastructure development of all regions and states of India.

Salient features:

• It is a key component of National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016. 
• The scheme would be in operation for a period up to 10 years from the date of notification of the Scheme Version 1.0. 
• It has a unique demand and market-based model to develop regional connectivity. RCS will be operational only in States and at airports/aerodromes/helipads which commit and support the scheme by providing concessions as required in the scheme. 
• Airfares on regional flights are capped at ₹2,500/ hour of approximately 500 km on an aircraft or for a 30 min on helicopter. 
• Airlines have to provide 50% of the seats (minimum of 9 and a maximum of 40 UDAN Seats) at subsidized rates. Remaining 50% seats will be priced at market rate. For helicopters, if seats are less than or equal to 13 then it is required to provide 100% as RCS seats, but if capacity is more than 13 then maximum 13 will be considered as RCS seats. 
• Support in the form of Concessions and Viability Gap Funding will be provided to selected operators for RCS routes under the scheme. 
• The Centre will share 80% of the VGF collected by charging a levy of up to ₹8,500 on each departing flight of domestic airlines and the rest 20% will come from the respective state governments (other than NE states, UK, HP and UTs which will contribute 10%).
• The Regional Connectivity Fund would be created for this purpose. 
• However, for the routes classified as State RCS Routes and Lakshadweep Specific Route, the State Governments and Ministry of Home Affairs respectively, shall be responsible for reimbursing 100% of the VGF under the scheme.