“The government is considering changing the scheme a bit so that we can offer more incentives to seaplane operators to make it sustainable.”
— Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation
The government is planning to provide more incentives to seaplane operators to make the leasing and operations more feasible under the small aircraft scheme. The scheme, incidentally, is being evaluated by the government. “The government is considering changing the scheme a bit so that we can offer more incentives to seaplane operators to make it sustainable,” Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, was quoted saying to ETTravelWorld.
Padhee said that the government was aware of the “high-cost factor” in seaplane operations and that included the “maintenance ecosystem” and the “regulatory framework”. All these factors make seaplane services financially unsustainable “without viability gap funding (VGF)”.
The new small aircraft scheme undergoing evaluation by the government would take into account and address the obstacles in the leasing of seaplanes as well as VGF for operations
Padhee also said that seaplanes were y successful in the Maldives because it was offered as part of the hotel package for high-end tourists. That model cannot work in India, she added.
More than two dozen seaplane routes have been offered under various UDAN schemes but the services have not taken off or have stopped shortly after starting of operations.
The new small aircraft scheme undergoing evaluation by the government would take into account and address the obstacles in the leasing of seaplanes as well as VGF for operations. She Joint Secretary said that the agreement between the Gujarat government and Mehair for seaplane operations was a model that could be looked at by other states as well. Mehair was proposing to operate Caravan seaplanes with 8 seats.
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