Patel On Warfooting To Incentivise Use of Secondary Airports

Bhisham Mansukhani -Mumbai

In lieu of the staggering aircraft orders placed at the recent Paris Air Show, minister for civil aviation Praful Patel said he was on a war footing to incentivise the use of secondary airports by Indian carriers. Part of the still-to- be ratified civil aviation policy, a plan to incentivise the use of secondary airports and use of more time slots at existing airports is presently being formulated.

“Airlines need to be pushed to stagger flights and use secondary airports. The time to land and park aircraft at secondary airports is now. Airlines are currently being given a softer option and when that does not exist anymore meaning that current metro airport capacity peaks, they will avail of this policy,” Patel said.

The minister was referring to the concentration of flights in certain metro airports and further, the concentration of flights during particular time slots contributed to chaos at the terminal. Of the aviation policy, which is fast acquiring the reputation of an enigma, Patel said, “The aviation policy has been drafted and is currently been submitted to various ministries for comments though more than 50 per cent of all the critical aspects of the policy have already been implemented.”

According to Patel, as part of the evolution of low cost aviation in the country, the sustenance of low fare models will inevitably see the carriers use odd hour time slots, thereby enabling the airports to absorb additional capacity. Addressing the issue of lack of trained pilots, he said, “The shortfall of pilots can be attended to by bringing in foreign pilots. Besides consenting to this, there is nothing else we can do.” Allaying fears of a massive bunch up of several aircraft at Indian terminals as a result of monumental aircraft order placed by Indian carriers, he said, “The aircraft orders are staggered. There is just a 50 aircraft ramp up expected by the end of 2006 and that is something our airports in their existing shape, can handle. As I said earlier, our policy to incentivise utilisation of secondary airports will meet the problem adequately.”

There still remains no change in the cap or the criteria of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in aviation. Neither will there be a cap on the number of players in the domestic aviation space though the review of criteria for new entrants will be considered purely from the perspective of requisite infrastructure, Patel revealed.