Civil Aviation In India - The Way Ahead

K Roy Paul

Liberalisation and restructuring of airport infrastructure is going to be a far more complex and difficult task than restructuring of air services. Each of the major Indian carriers has to be encouraged to develop one airport as its hub

The Indian civil aviation sector has been in continuous ferment since the announcement made at the Bali summit by the then Prime Minister of India offering more liberal landing rights to the ASEAN national carriers at a number of Indian airports, both domestic and international, and the subsequent permission granted to the private Indian carriers to fly to all SAARC countries. These two policy initiatives did not immediately transform Indian aviation but did mark a very major change in the mindset of the policy makers.

There are currently only three ASEAN carriers that have achieved recognition as global airlines and enjoy fairly liberal landing rights at the four metro cities while no additional rights have been offered to them at the two emerging metro cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad. There is still very little traffic generated from ASEAN countries to the other so called tourist gateways where unlimited access was granted. Similarly, the Indian Airlines operations to SAARC countries have not been particularly profitable and sharing these routes with the private airlines would not have made any impact on IA's bottom line. What these initiatives did signify was a recognition of the need to boost international air connectivity and the right of the private carriers also to be designated India's national carriers on international routes. For the first time, the requirements of national economy were given precedence over the need to protect the bottomline of the two public sector carriers.

Taking Initiatives forward

The Prime Minister's initiatives were followed by more policy changes aimed at liberalising international travel into and from India. These included a cabinet decision to allow every country having air services agreement with India to have daily flights to any two international airports in India. Prior to this, bilateral aviation talks used to be reduced to a haggling over every single weekly flight on the basis of some dubious statistics of third and fourth freedom traffic furnished by Air-India's ostrich like Planning Division. The new policy recognised that good connectivity between two places required a flight every day of the week at the same time. The ministry of Civil Aviation also discontinued the practice of allowing Air- India to extract a price for access to the Indian market from every foreign airline through a mandatory commercial agreement between national carriers. During the peak tourist season of 2003-04, every foreign airline was allowed to operate as many flights to India as it wanted. For the first time in many years, there was no off-loading of confirmed passengers after the introduction of the peak season open sky policy. The recent decision to allow private Indian carriers to fly on all international routes except in the Gulf region has taken the Bali initiative to its logical conclusion and should be seen as an important landmark in the history of Indian aviation.

In the area of airport infrastructure, the amendment of Airports Authority of India Act heralded a new era as it permitted Greenfield airports to be set up in private sector and existing airports of Airports Authority to be given on long-term lease. Work has already started on new airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad and plans are afoot for airports in Goa and Pune. The process is underway for restructuring the Delhi and Mumbai airports as joint ventures with private sector participation. Similar plans are being worked out for Chennai and Kolkata as well as some non-metro airports. All these should result in a major facelift and efficiency enhancement of the airport infrastructure in the country.

New Policies...New Trends

The changes in government policies on air services have already started attracting new players and led to the emergence of new trends. International air services are also expanding very fast. Air traffic in the Indian skies is set to grow exponentially in the near future. This has already begun to expose the weaknesses of the Indian air traffic control and air navigation system. Long queues of aircraft waiting to take off or land have become a common occurrence at every major airport in the country. This is the area where the government's attention should focus without delay. There has to be a time-bound programme for upgrading the equipment and training of personnel. A major upgradation of the training institution at Allahabad with international help is urgently required. This, along with construction of new runways at important airports like Delhi, will enhance the capacity to handle larger volumes of air traffic.

Air traffic control systems in India used to be as good as the best in the world. Now, although it has not deteriorated, it has failed to keep pace with the rest of the world. This happened because the air traffic system, which used to be part of DGCA, is now managed entirely by the Airports Authority. There is no monitoring or regulation by an outside agency because DGCA does not have any experts in this field left with it. To rectify this situation, the regulatory role of DGCA has to be restored in this area by creating a new division manned by persons with domain knowledge.

What Lies Ahead...

Though some changes in the management of airport infrastructure have been initiated already, we still have a long way to go. Liberalisation and restructuring of airport infrastructure is going to be a far more complex and difficult task than restructuring of air services. As it happened with the reform of Indian economy, the easier part is over and the difficult part has to be taken up now. There can be no improvement unless the monolithic management structure of the Airports Authority is broken up and separate entities formed to manage each of the major airports and groups of the smaller airports. Devolution of power to these entities should be total while ensuring greater accountability and professionalism. Each of the major Indian carriers has to be encouraged to develop one airport as its hub. The unions will oppose these changes as they perceive it as a threat to their collective bargaining strength. Corrupt elements in the existing management also will not give up their enormous power of patronage without a fight. Will the government show determination to cut through these obstructions? We will have to wait and see.

(The author is former secretary - civil aviation, government of India)