Ashok Gajapathi Raju
Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati, the Union Civil Aviation Minister, has launched the Regional air Connectivity Scheme (RCS) in New Delhi that seeks to get more people to fly in the smaller towns. The RCS schemes is also called as “Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) (Let the common man of the country fly)”. Under the RCS scheme, airlines will have complete freedom to enter into code sharing with larger airlines for connectivity and they will be exempted from various airport charges. Airlines will get exclusive rights for 3 years to fly on a particular regional route. Airfares will be capped at 2,500 rupees for an hour’s flight for regional flights. The scheme is expected to be rolled out by January 2017.