Transport Minister Dasakhiatbha Lamare was refreshingly honest in the Assembly today when he admitted that the state government’s deal with Flybig to operate subsidised flights from Umroi to New Delhi was finalised in too much of a hurry.
However, he was perhaps too honest for his Chief Minister, as Conrad Sangma quickly jumped into the discussion and blamed the Covid-19 pandemic for causing disruption to the relatively small airline.
Sangma has put a lot of political capital into the contract with Flybig, which has received ‘viability gap funding’ from the state to the tune of Rs 2.06 crore to run these flights. The last such flight to operate was in October, apparently one that the CM was on.
To a question on the status of the Flybig operation, Lamare said that lessons had been learned by the government. The company never operated its own aeroplanes on the route, instead leasing them from SpiceJet. This arrangement with SpiceJet apparently fell through, leaving the airline unable to source another plane.
Asking a supplementary question, opposition legislator Charles Pyngrope said, “
“Was it prudent to sign an agreement with an operator that has no aircraft or shouldn’t we look at options where we sign an agreement with an operator who has at least one or two aircraft of its own?”
In response, Lamare said, “Flybig promised us to avail an aircraft, which is a Bombardier Q400. Since this was the government’s first experience, it was a lesson to learn.” He added that if the company is unable to restart flights by the end of the month, then the government might take “another step”.
Sangma, meanwhile, blamed the Covid pandemic for getting in the way of the service, which begs the question as to why the government signed the agreement during the pandemic in the first place; the first Flybig flight from Umroi to Delhi took off in December 2020.
The CM said that the government chose Flybig on the basis that it was one of only two companies that submitted tenders for the route. It was also the cheapest and it suggested using turboprop aircraft, which are capable of using the short Umroi runway.
While the first flight took off in December 2020, when the first wave of the Covid pandemic had eased, the coming of the second wave in the Spring of 2021 brought difficulties.
The government issued a show-cause notice last December and Flybig has asked for time until the end of this month to resume services.
Sangma also made it clear that the government does not pay Flybig any subsidy if the Umroi-Delhi service does not run.
“We are in the process of ensuring that this flight restarts. It’s something that we have taken the initiative,” said Sangma.
The CM also defended the decision to entrust Flybig with the service and the cost the state has incurred on the project, saying that the project was not a failure.
The subsidy was required in order to keep the cost of the tickets low enough to entice fliers and Sangma said that this had been successful while the flight operated.
“If we did not have the pandemic, I’m sure that we would have seen this entire process become much smoother,” he added.
Sangma also explained why the Shillong-Delhi flight could not be subsidised by the central government; the Centre is currently subsidising seven flights connecting Umroi with other cities. The CM said that the Centre’s UDAN scheme only applies to routes of 500km radius. Umroi-Delhi lies outside this limit.
On the question of international flights, Sangma said that he has had verbal communication with the Union Minister of Civil Aviation, who told him that connecting Umroi to Sylhet and Dhaka in Bangladesh are options worth exploring as it would boost business and tourism connectivity.
