On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the grand inauguration of his government’s ambitious regional air connectivity scheme Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN). Flagging off the scheme, he said that he wanted people wearing hawai chappal to do hawai yatra. As per the announcement, the fares of the affordable schemes have been capped at Rs 2,500 per hour of flying.
But there is a catch! Not all seats in the flight are going to be worth Rs 2,036. The flight service, being run by Air India subsidiary Alliance Air, has deployed a 42-seater plane from Delhi to Shimla. Out of these, 24 seats are sold at the discounted ticket price but for the rest, passengers will have to pay prices that are market driven. Currently, for 11 nonsubsidised seats, the tickets are being sold at prices ranging between Rs 5,300 to as high as Rs 19,080.
In the return journey, the flight can have a maximum of 15 passengers due to limitations like the length of runway at Shimla airport, temperature, and altitude. Unlike to onwards flight, all the 15 seats come under the UDAN fare bucket in the return leg.
Gone are the days when aviation catered to a select few. Govt’s Civil Aviation Policy gives wings to the aspirations of a new India. pic.twitter.com/pVMQffUsvb
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 27, 2017
However, the flight availability for the next one month showed that most of the discounted fare seats have already been booked. The flight will be operational for five days in a week, barring Monday and Tuesday.
The airline officials have said that they want to have more seats but cannot due to several restrictions. The airline has received a tremendous response since it is a holiday season.
The passengers hoping to book cheap flight tickets were in for a shock when they logged on to the Air India website.
@PMOIndia @narendramodi #UDAN #UdanScheme fare of a single adult , not for four people 🙁 pic.twitter.com/tWb6KteGw3
— Loans Thru Banks (@loansthrubanks) April 27, 2017
Some started questioning the scheme too!
Low cost? Delhi-Shimla air ticket for Rs 19,000 https://t.co/2iQW9tFgUJ
RIP low fare #Udan __
— Jumla Raja (@monsun14) April 28, 2017
#UDAN @PMOIndia @narendramodi Hyd to chennai aerial dstance 520km Airlines offering min fare f Rs.1529. In wt way 2500 s cheep fr 500kms? pic.twitter.com/l0D8eulbRK
— Premkumar Sengodan (@Premjikumar) April 27, 2017
Every return flight is likely to cost Rs 4.06 lakh to Alliance Air but the profits that it will be able to generate will only be around Rs 2.64 lakh. Since the flight will only be able to ferry 15 passengers on its way back, Alliance Air has sought financial assistance for the project. It has sought a relief of about Rs 1.42 lakh for every return flight on this route or Rs 5 crore per year to compensate for its losses.
As per the Prime Minister’s ambitious UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) scheme, fares are capped at Rs 2,500 for one-hour flights.
PM @narendramodi flags off first #UDAN flight, watch to know what UDAN is all about! #TransformingIndia https://t.co/zfvvXpqlJy pic.twitter.com/hCsDVmEmBn
— MyGovIndia (@mygovindia) April 27, 2017
