As India prepares to offer a second round of routes on its regional connectivity scheme UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik, or "let every citizen fly"), IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi International) has come out against a three-year exclusivity clause contained in the contracts. The Financial Chronicle quotes an official source as saying that IndiGo believes the clause could lead to monopolies on certain routes, and would like to see it limited to one year or abolished altogether. However SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) is in favour of the clause.
The UDAN scheme was officially launched earlier this year, with the aim of increasing air travel from India's Tier II and III cities. In March, 128 routes were awarded to five operators – Alliance Air (India) (9I, Delhi International), Air Deccan (2003) (Bengaluru International), Air Odisha (Bhubaneshwar), TruJet (TRJ, Hyderabad International) and Spicejet. Spicejet has elected not to receive government subsidies in the form of viability gap funding, and IndiGo did not participate in the first round.
Despite not having any UDAN routes currently, IndiGo recently placed an order for fifty ATR72-600 aircraft in anticipation of participating in the next round.
The connectivity scheme has generally been thought of as successful, although only Alliance Air and Trujet have so far commenced UDAN flights. The government is reviewing the contract conditions for the next round, and is considering changing the three-year exclusivity clause, increasing the number of available seats, and allowing flights between Tier I cities that are currently not connected.
