Government to provide viability gap funding for seaplane operations: Civil Aviation Minister

The government plans to extend the regional air connectivity scheme by another ten years and also provide viability gap funding for seaplane operations, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Thursday.

He also said the government will encourage companies to design and manufacture aircraft, helicopters and seaplanes in India.

The Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday announced simplified norms for seaplane operations. Naidu told reporters that some states, including Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, have expressed interest to participate in seaplane operations.

Demo flights of seaplanes will be done in October starting with Vijayawada, he said. The seaplane operations are being promoted under the regional air connectivity scheme UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik).

According to the minister, viability gap funding will be provided for seaplane operators. Apart from tourism, seaplanes can also be valuable for research, environmental monitoring, coastal resource management, and coastal and island defence, among other areas, the minister said. He also said that UDAN has been a successful and revolutionary scheme for air connectivity. "It was envisaged for ten years, and that is going to end in two years. We want to extend it for ten years and also bring in improvements wherever necessary," Naidu told reporters.

The minister also launched a fresh round of bidding under UDAN on Thursday.

The scheme was launched in 2017. As many as 579 routes connecting 85 airports, including 13 heliports and 2 water aerodromes, have been operationalised under the scheme while some of the routes have been discontinued due to various reasons.

Last month, the ministry informed the Rajya Sabha that some UDAN routes have been discontinued "due to various reasons, which include selected airline operator discontinuing the operations after completing the prescribed three-year tenure due to low passenger load factor, shutdown of airlines, low visibility at VFR (Visual Flight Rules) airports etc".