In an interview with Sanjay Vijayakumar , Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju covers wide-ranging issues of the aviation sector, promising but struggling to take off on to path of growth.
You have said that aviation is always in bad news? What are doing to bring the sector into good news?
Aviation gets into the headline for various reasons. And generally it is the wrong thing like service disruption, untime performance, while service disruptions are the worst thing. Off course, People’s time consciousness has also increased, so on time performance also becomes important. So airlines have to gear up and go ahead with this. And whatever impediments they have has to be removed. So I guess it will be that.
Going into the second year of the Modi government what would be priorities for civil aviation?
As it is in the first year there has been healthy growth in number of passengers. So that way it reflects in the economy also. So we would like this growth to continue. The areas where we are minuscule like cargo we would like that also to increase. We need to put strategies in place to help that happen. And then our own connectivity. Because we are a big country and we need connectivity. So we have a few airports where there is no activity. So we will try to activate the inactive airports. So these kind of strategies we would be coming up with. And we hope that the whole thing help us in going forward.
The pricing practices by the airlines have come under scrutiny? What is your take?
This is an issue which was also brought up in parliament. Some people are suggesting for some caps. But when you push up the tickets for some, you also pull down the tickets for some. So you get some people cursing you and some people praising you. Where does it take you in the ultimate analysis. World over you have the lower floors and caps. That is one thing and it affects activity. A classic example, in the year some 26-32 flights everyday have gone to Srinagar and back. They are going quite full. Who are the people going there, basically tourists. They have bought the tickets much earlier and got it cheaper. And they are filling up the hotels, houseboats, restaurants in that place. Now if you push up the cost the chances are that this might drastically come down. Do you want to take those risks? So depends on how you look at it. When I was in Srinagar the locals where saying last minute medical emergency, yes it is a problem, last moment medical emergency they have to buy a ticket and prices are high which causes a heart burn. So there are two sides of the coin and how does one go about it is the question.
What about bigger policies like getting rid of 5/20 rule, which mandates a domestic carrier to be five-year old and have a fleet of 20 aircraft to fly on international routes?
The 5/20 rule is a regulation only in India and no where else in the world. I am more than convinced that this has pulled or pushed down Indian players. So much so that India has not been able to utilise its own bilaterals. Quite a few Chief Ministers want connectivity to other countries and we have bilaterals. So everything is in place except the airline. And unused bilaterals are the worst thing. We have to get out that concept. So we have to utilise our opportunities, negotiating opportunities is one thing, utilising existing opportunities is another. I guess all this go hand in hand. We have to move ahead and attempt in that direction.
Will that happen soon?
I hope it happens sooner because one thing that we would like to hold on or our key premise is connectivity within the country. We cannot compromise on that. Keeping that in mind you have to encourage people to go ahead.
What about the plans to develop ultra low cost airports?
You need airports in certain places where connectivity is bad. You need basically infrastructure. But say 2-3 hour drive from airport which does not have much traffic, if you put a new airport you will either kill this one or the other one. It does not make sense. So one has to find a right balance between economic sense because the airport has the multiplier effect on the local economy. Everyone wants an airport. But it has to survive by itself and pay for itself. Those angles also have to be looked into. If for some reason it does not get an economic viability, but it has a potential you will have to look into that also. So there are difference ways of looking at this things and have to be done.
What are the others things we look forward to you from aviation ministry?
We hope that the skies will become more vibrant and more Indians start travelling including for good old tourism and things like that. Business tourism, disposable income within the country has gone up and if tourism goes up it will have an multiplier effect in the economy. Because it is highest employer for capital investment anywhere in the world. So India definitely has that potential and we plan to harness it.
