In aviation policy draft, India seeks to make air travel affordable for masses .
New Delhi : Incentives to fly to small towns at affordable cost and easing the norms for domestic carriers to operate services abroad are some of the highlights of the new draft aviation policy, released on Friday for inputs from stakeholders before finalisation. The primary aim of the policy is to ensure a tariff of no more than Rs.2500 per ticket for each flying-hour with a host of incentives and other benefits to both airport developers and operators to make that happen. One way to compensate the stakeholders for the cap on the airfare is to impose a levy of 2% on all domestic and international tickets on all routes. According to a ministry release, the proposed scheme will be finalised and come into effect from April 1, 2016. In addition, it has been proposed that the state governments will provide free land and multi-modal hinterland connectivity. The state governments will also be required to provide concessional rates of power, water and other utilities. Also, they would be required to impose VAT on ATF 1% or less on airports coming under the regional connectivity scheme. The excise duty on ATF drawn by SCAs from RCS airports will also be exempted. The draft policy also talks about looking at cost effective security solutions.
“The policy will also have a fixed period of existence, so that Industry can plan in advance. That is the idea,” Civil Aviation Minister Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju told a press conference, where he unveiled the new draft, along with his deputy Mahesh Sharma. The basic philosophy behind the policy is to take flying to the masses: So, operators will get some doles to fly to smaller towns with incentives linked to fuel prices and inflation. All this makes sense as of the 430 airstrips and airports in the country, only around 90 are in operation; nearly 300-odd are not being used. Once the linkages are there, it would enhance regional connectivity. These defunct airstrips will be upgraded into no-frills airports at cost of Rs.50 crore each. Besides, to make operations in such airports feasible, the security will be aircraft-based — so that the airport is sanitised just around an hour or two before the flight.
The policy also dwells on easing of norms for flying abroad, further liberalisation in open skies regime, development of cargo business, intra-city chopper services, attracting investments in maintenance sector, ground handling and security. For an open skies regime, the draft policy proposes total liberalisation in a time-bound manner, but based on a reciprocal arrangement from the partner country. It has proposed three ways forward on allowing domestic airline operators to fly abroad: One, to continue with the existing norm of five-year operation with a 20-aircraft fleet; two, to abolish this altogether; three, draft new set of norms under which an operator must earn some minimum credit with domestic operations before being allowed to fly abroad.
