Major policy decisions that could have a far reaching impact on the Indian civil aviation sector will have to await the formation of a government after the General Election. These include setting up a new regulator for the sector (the Bill to that effect awaits Parliamentary clearance) and having a new aviation policy in place. This was the impression Mr Ashok Lavasa, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation gave while speaking to the media at the India Aviation 2014 – an event organised jointly by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in Hyderabad – gave (March 12). “The new civil aviation authority bill was introduced in Parliament sometime last year and thereafter the Parliamentary standing committee made certain recommendations. These were examined and accepted by the government in January. A revised civil aviation authority bill has been approved by the Cabinet. Unfortunately, it could not be considered by Parliament because of paucity of time and will have to come back to the new Parliament when it is constituted,” Mr Lavasa said. On aviation policy, he added: “We are in the process of consultations with stakeholders representing various segments of industry… we have got their inputs and we are in the process of drafting a policy but that will be considered only by the new government.” A key priority before the ministry, he said, was to make airports in tier II and III towns and airlines operating there viable. In order to do so, he said, “We are in the process of developing a low cost airport model.”
No safety issues involved with Dreamliner: AI chairman
Mr Rohit Nandan, Chairman and Managing Director of Air India, who was also present, said there was no safety issues involved with the Dreamliner aircraft that the airline had received from Boeing. Conceding that there have been number of ‘incidents’ involving the Dreamliner, he said, “These incidents are not unusual in a new fleet and in a new aircraft and everyone is trying to adjust to the new machine…. There are no safety issues involved.” He said the issues related to “either software or small technical matters” which “our engineers are competent to handle.”
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