Regional aviation in its purest form consists of taking aviation services to remote locations that are not attractive enough for the mainline carriers. Indeed, if not for regional aviation, hundreds of towns and small cities across the globe would be bereft of an air link.

Regional aviation, the lifeline of hundreds of small and isolated communities, means different things to different people. It is generally assumed to include all flights operated by feeder and commuter airlines. Strictly speaking, only one Indian airline, the Delhi-based Air Mantra, can be called a regional airline under the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) August 2007 regulations on Scheduled Air Transport Regional Services. But low-cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet has a spanking new fleet of 15 Bombardier Q400 NextGen aircraft that have been acquired mainly to connect Tier-II and Tier-III cities across the country. The airline has options for another 15 of these versatile turboprops. Jet Airways operates 16 ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft and is inducting five ATR 72-600 so as to touch a number of smaller airports that are out of bounds with jets. These in-built regional capabilities serve as feeder flights between outlying airports and the parent airline’s hubs. Indeed, any flight that links a small or out-of-the-way city is somewhat loosely termed regional aviation, even though it may be operated by a major carrier which routinely flies to international destinations. That is perhaps understandable, since just 30 per cent of domestic passenger traffic does not pass through the country’s six metros (Tier-I cities).

Back To The Beginning

During the early days of commercial aviation, about a century ago, many independent airlines were launched only to meet the needs of their communities, because the limited range of their aircraft could not take them much farther. Their small propeller-driven planes would fly point-to-point between their home base and any nearby airport, capable of generating enough passenger traffic. Many of these flights would fall under the shorthaul regional aviation category as understood today.

As the range of airliners steadily increased, so did the possibility of venturing further afield. Flag carriers like British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) created in 1940 through the merger of Imperial Airways with British Airways Ltd and Trans-Canada Air Lines established in 1937, specialised in flying long distance, especially overseas. Many older airlines like KLM (1919) and Pan American (1927) also gradually switched to bigger planes, preferring to operate on the lucrative long distance routes and abandoning the small towns that had been an important source of passengers till then.

The process came to a head with Pan Am’s introduction of the Boeing 747 on January 22, 1970. The Jumbo Jet’s mindboggling seating capacity, 660 in single class for the B747-400D, meant that it could profitably operate only from large cities. The small airlines that still owned only short-range planes, eventually termed regional aircraft, found a natural market, ferrying small groups of passengers from nearby airports to the major hub airports of the flag carriers. Thus they helped satisfy the voracious appetite for passengers of the large airliners bound for other national and overseas hubs. Before long, the small airlines’ role was formalised as regional feeder airlines operating under the “hub-and-spoke” model, so-called because of the bicycle wheel it graphically resembles. The regional aviation leg was often the first short stage of a journey that might end halfway across the globe.

The US Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, which slashed government controls on commercial aviation, further helped sharpen the separation between major airlines and regional carriers. Most large airlines, now free to choose their routes, quickly abandoned the less profitable routes to smaller places. Gradually, regional airlines came to be defined as airlines that provide service to communities without sufficient demand to attract mainline service. Numerous small airlines entered the market, many prudently signing cooperative agreements with the big guys to form hub-and-spoke networks. The big airlines assumed most of the risk while providing nearly double-digit margins to regional airlines. And both benefited by increased growth.

In due course, the switch from one airline’s aircraft to another’s became seamless, thanks to code-sharing agreements. Code-shares allowed the major carriers to competitively outsource their short-haul flying requirements to regional carriers while maintaining their brand identity. According to the US Regional Airline Association, such agreements help streamline the airline experience for the traveller, provide seamless service to smaller communities, and allow individual carriers to specialise in one particular aircraft. Nowadays the model is under severe strain mainly due to the precarious finances of the airline industry everywhere.

However, not all regional aviation depends on being tied to the apron strings of the major carriers. There is also another type of regional airline, a commuter airline that operates under its own brand and provides service to small and isolated communities, for whom it is the only link to a nearby city. And a third commonly recognised type of regional airline is an independent airline that operates scheduled point-to-point service between larger destinations within a specific region, with sufficient traffic to fill planes with more than 100 seats.

The Indian Connection

In countries like India, a distinction should be made between regional aviation and regional airlines. Any scheduled flight that touches an airport in a Tier-II, Tier-III or Tier-IV location is regarded as regional aviation, even though it may not be operated by any of the three recognised regional airline types.

A few years after independence, the country’s airline industry was nationalised and eight private domestic airlines were merged to form a new national carrier, Indian Airlines Corporation. The airline started operations in August 1953, serving many small and remote regional destinations, besides the larger cities. However, during the 1970s and 1980s, when narrow-body jets like the Airbus 320 and the Boeing 737 became the norm, many regional locations with short runways had to be dropped from its schedule. In 1981, Vayudoot was established as a dedicated regional airline. It operated from its hub at Kolkata mainly in the North-eastern region that was practically without air transportation services. However, Vayudoot’s financial performance steadily deteriorated and it was dissolved in 1993.

The government’s regional aviation policy of August 2007 was intended to help small new airlines connect Tier-II and Tier-III cities to the nearest metro from where the major carriers would link distant destinations. Many enterprises seemed willing, but the only regional carrier that actually launched operations was MDLR Airlines, based in Gurgaon. However, it suspended operations in November 2009 on account of steeply rising oil prices.

Nowadays, although most of the country’s airlines provide regional services to some degree, only Air Mantra is a recognised regional airline. It began operating in July 2012 with two 17-seat Beechcraft 1900D turboprop aircraft between Amritsar and Chandigarh. Its services have since been extended to Jammu. The major airlines also realise that the inter-metro routes are saturated while the potential of Tier-II and Tier-III destinations is just waiting to be exploited. Lack of connectivity, rather than lack of demand, is holding back traffic growth. However, only small aircraft, especially turboprops, can provide air services to many airports with runways too short for narrow-body jets.