The government is mulling creating a corpus fund for the aviation sector in line with the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for the telecom sector.

A top civil aviation ministry official told FE that they are considering a cess on travellers on metro routes.

Airlines too may have to pay if they do not fly to smaller towns, as per the new route dispersal guidelines, that would make a certain portion of their domestic operations  mandatory for flying to smaller towns.

According to new norms outlined in the revised aviation policy for promoting air connectivity for regional and remote areas of the country, domestic airlines seeking permits to fly overseas anyway, would be required to earn that right by providing connectivity to underserved and unserved areas (smaller towns or Tier -2 and 3).

“You have many new airlines, which may not be willing to fly to smaller towns, as these places do not make a business case for them. They can buy seats or contribute  towards aviation corpus fund for not flying to these underserved areas of the country,” said an official.

The official explained that the matter is under discussion at the highest level in the civil aviation ministry and could take some time, before any final decision is taken.

“The plan is still at the nascent stage. We are working on the ways we can have the corpus fund like the USOF in the telecom sector, which is now being used in creating telecom infrastructure across the country,” he added.

“The corpus fund is purely meant to fund or developing more airports especially in smaller towns which do not have any means and access to air travel. There are other 456 airstrips spread across the country that has a potential to be developed as full-fledged airports,” said an AAI official.

The country has 31 non-operational airports apart from 45 defence airports, 83 state government airports that are lying unused. Airports Authority of India alone spent over Rs 48 crore on maintenance of 31 non-operational airports in the country in the last five years.

On the other hand, the government is also apprehensive about the plan, as airlines are already bleeding and the government has
not been able to provide them the necessary cushioning as far as the aviation fuel and airport charges are concerned, which are very high.