LUCKNOW: With seven phases to cover in around 80 days, demand for chartered aircraft and choppers by political parties is on rise. In the previous Lok Sabha elections, around Rs 400 crore were spent by prominent national and regional parties, including BJP, Congress, AITMC, BSP, SP and NCP, for availing the air travel facility.
“There is an exponential demand for both airplanes and helicopters for the Lok Sabha polls. Parties who book fixed airplanes, also subsequently book helicopters because of the last-mile connectivity to interior locations,” said Rajan Mehra, the CEO of Club One Air.
Mehra, former India head of Qatar Airways, is also one of the directors of A R Airways Private Limited which has eight airplanes, including 10-seater Falcon 2000 to seven-seater Cessna Citation II. According to ECI’s poll expenses data, in 2019 LS elections, A R Airways Private Limited alone provided around Rs 9.54 crore worth of4air service to the Congress party.
Chartered plane and chopper services are charged on an hourly basis.
Inside sources said the fare can vary from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 5.3 lakh per hour for achartered plane.
For a helicopter, the hourly charge will be around Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh or even more due to higher demand during polls.
“During LS polls, helicopters are anticipated to bemore in demand as they can land anywhere in the remote corners of the country. Their fare charges also increase by up to 40% due to high demand. In Uttar Pradesh, chopper service is preferred by majority of political parties,” said Rohit Mathur, the founder and CEO of Heritage Aviation which operates four choppers, including six-seater Agusta A109S and sevenseater Eurocopter EC130 (now Airbus Helicopters H130). In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Heritage Aviation Private Limited provided Rs 12.29 crore worth of air service to BJP.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, there were 112 nonscheduled operators (NSOPs) at the end of December 2023. NSOPs do not have a particular fixed schedule and fly when there is a requirement. Out of the total NSOPs, around half of them operate single aircraft.
With around 400 aircraft, including around 190 choppers and 175 planes, these operators have aircraft with varying seating capacities.
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Read MoreArvind Chauhan is an experienced journalist with a demonstrated history of working in the newspapers industry as well as for the social media wing as digital content creator. He has covered subjects like railways, aviation, defence, energy, health, real estate, minority affairs, women and child development, crime, customs, telecom, district court, district administration, roads and infrastructure, armed forces tribunal, and regional politics across Uttar Pradesh. He began his career in Lucknow, and has done reporting in West Uttar Pradesh. He has won the Times Scribe Award four times including for busting fake news, and extensive coverage on Covid orphans. He graduated with a journalism degree from Times School of Journalism and BA (Honors) in English from Lucknow University.
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