Tollywood actor Ram Charan is one of the Board of directors, of Turbo Megha Airways. Taking a promoting TruJet, Charan said “TruJet is the latest entrant in the aviation sector. It will be truly low-cost and focused on the southern states.” But Trujet have been reportedly running in losses in Vijayawada-Kadapa and Vijayawada-Tirupathi routes because the passenger number on these routes is less.

He added "I don't look at as business. It is just an investment for me. A lot of people say that they are low cost but they are actually not...We are true to our initial statement which is low cost. Our routes are southern. We are focusing basically on southern states."


Now Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister has said that TruJet can continue its services despite losses. On top of that state government has promised to bear those losses under Viability Gap funding (VGF) scheme but everyone thinks that these funds were released by State Government. This has nothing to do with the government. The Rs. 10 Crore has been given from aviation scheme.

There is absolutely no favors done by AP CM or any one as it is being wrongly circulated by other portals. So, as per aviation scheme here are some of the facts through which funds are released.


Under the scheme, it will grant one-time or charged support to infrastructure schemes that are economically justified but fall short of financial viability.

As per this scheme, if airlines run there services without ant financial stability, the state government will have to pay Rs 9.76 crore to them for running the services for one year. Apart from this government also said that 5 seats should be reserved for officials.Trujet runs ATR-72 planes  in which 72 seats are there. It was a fair deal for Trujet anyway.


Recently Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry was removed as Tata Sons Chairman after he made some important disclosures on the aviation business. In this regard, the Civil Aviation Ministry is keeping an eye on the Tata Sons.

The ministry said that it “will act if any illegality is brought to its notice after Mistry said that the group initially sought to side-step “ethical concerns” raised against Air Asia India in which Tata Sons have 49% stake.”

“We are waiting for input from any quarter. We have not received anything so far,” Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said.

Cyrus Mistry had claimed in an email that “forensic investigation revealed fraudulent transactions of Rs 22 crore involving non-existent entities in India and Singapore.”

Mistry said, “board members and trustees were also aware that in the case of AirAsia, ethical concerns have been raised with respect to certain transactions as well as the overall prevailing culture within the organization”.

Mistry said “an Executive Trustee, who is on the board of AirAsia India and a shareholder in the company, considered these transactions (of Rs 22 crore) as non-material and did not encourage further study”.


Previously, Ashok Gajapathi Raju Civil Aviation Minister had revealed the fine print of the regional connectivity scheme. It is expected to bolster air connectivity by promoting affordable flying.

Read Also: India presents draft Regional Air Connectivity Scheme

Under the regional connectivity scheme, passenger flight fares were reduced from unserved and underserved airports at Rs 2,500 per hour for approximately 500 kilometers due to the new Civil Aviation Policy

These are 10 salient features of the regional connectivity scheme. This scheme only aimed at making flying affordable for all the passengers:

1. The scheme will be suitable for route length between 200 to 800 km with no lowering limit set for hilly, isolated, island and security sensitive regions.

2. The Central government will provide authorizations for Value Added Tax excise of 2% (VAT) and service tax at 1/10th the rate. This will be liberal code sharing for airports.

3. State governments will shift to key allies and provide free safety and fire service. All these will be at limited rates and the VAT on ATF will be reduced to 1 percent.

4. In this scheme, no parking charges, no landing charges, and no Terminal Navigation Landing Charges will be imposed for flights.

5. A Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF) will be created. This will help to fund the project via custom on certain flights. 20 per cent has to be given to the fund by the states.

6. For balanced regional growth, allocations will be spread equally across all 5 regions - North, West, South, East and North East with a cap of 25 percent.

7. A minimum of 3 and a maximum 7 flights per week and per route with minimum 9 and maximum 40 seats per flight will come under this scheme.

8. This scheme will be in work for 10 years with individual route contracts of 3-years. The limited period will be allotted only to the selected operators.

9. If Interested, operators can submit proposals. If there are any gaps in costs and revenues, it will get adjusted through Viability Gap Funding. (VGF)

10. The Market-based reverse bidding mechanism will determine least VGF to allow the airline operator to select with the right to match to the initial proposed. The government said, “VGF will be reduced if passenger load factor remains high and will be discontinued after 3 years when the route becomes self-sustainable.”

Only under these assurances, all the airlines started operating with the Aviation Ministry.

M. DIVYA SRI

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