Air Vistara Hits with Hefty Rs 70 Lakh Penalty for Non-Compliance of UDAN Flights in North East India

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has imposed a fine of Rs 70 lakh on Tata-owned airline Air Vistara for failing to meet the minimum number of flights operated to underserved areas in the Northeast in April 2022. The airline had paid the fine under protest, claiming that it had deployed the requisite number of available seat kilometres (ASKMs) but could not meet the target due to the closure of the Bagdogra airport. A DGCA official confirmed to ANI that the airline has already paid the fine.

Reiterating its compliance with the Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG), a Vistara spokesperson said that the airline had been consistently deploying more than requisite ASKMs in the various categories, as prescribed in the RDG rule. The Civil Aviation Policy 2016, which came into effect from Northern Winter 2017-18, disallowed trading of ASKMs, thus limiting the options available to airlines to make any last-minute adjustments in such instances. According to reports, Vistara missed the target number by 0.01%, which equates to one flight.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Regional Connectivity Scheme UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik), launched in October 2016, has been working to fulfill the aspirations of the common citizen, with an enhanced aviation infrastructure and air connectivity in tier II and tier III cities. “We confirm to have deployed capacity in excess to the RDG requirement since then, as we had been doing in the past,” the Vistara spokesperson added.