Sinha urges industry to raise issues
The Civil Aviation Ministry is working to ensure the Indian airline sector is a locomotive for the global civil aviation, with an investment of Rs.4.5 lakh crore, its secretary R.N. Choubey has assured.
“In the next five years, we would be investing Rs.1.5 lakh crore in airports, we would investing Rs.3 lakh crore in airline side and we are committed to make sure that this investment happens very speedily,” said the aviation secretary.
“Our ministry is working on that, our ministry is working on creating airport infrastructure, creating an overall ecosystem where this growth rate is sustained, where we make sure that we prove to be the locomotive as far as global civil aviation is concerned,” he told delegates at the International Conference on Civil Aviation and Cargo held by ASSOCHAM on 10 Aug 2018.
He noted the challenges being faced by the airlines and the need to reduce costs both at the airports and as far as aviation turbine fuel (ATF) was concerned.
While one of the biggest challenges being faced by the Ministry was that of airport infrastructure, the related challenge was from the skill side i.e., how to make sure that adequate number of skilled people are available for taking this growth forward.
Conceding that his ministry was aware of the challenges and difficulties that are brought about by a healthy competition, Choubey said, “While the passenger load factors are very healthy, yields are softening up, that of course only means that those players whose cost structures are efficient are going to keep growing.”
The ministry is conscious of the issues, he added.
Earlier in his address at the ASSOCHAM conference, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha said that considering a strong underlined demand, India’s civil aviation sector will continue to grow 12-14% a year and thus the government was now planning for a billion trips.
“If we are 200-250 million trips this year, we really have to think ahead and think of a billion trips and that is what we are thinking and that is what we are working towards,” said Sinha.
He, however, said that there was a need to unlock and make sure that all markets work very well, be it international, national, regional, remote, helicopter services, cargo and logistics, ground handling, drone industry and others.
“The demand for aviation services in India is very strong, the challenge for us from policy point of view has been to understand that each of these markets are differentiated,” said Sinha.
He added that differentiated policies and approaches were required and then the government would work together with the industry to unlock these markets and enable them to flourish.
He also asked the industry to keep finding faults with Civil Aviation Ministry’s working for them to improve further and serve in a better way. “You have given us your direct and straight feedback and told us what is working and what is not. We have been able to address these issues, so please keep bringing us our defects, keep telling us what is wrong with us.”
Addressing the ASSOCHAM conference, Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director, SpiceJet urged the government to bring down costs for aviation industry for it to take off. “Bringing down costs would help Indian airlines match up with their global counterparts.”
He also said that it was an opportune time for India to garner major share of global aviation business in wake of US-China trade dispute. fiinews.com
