The Hindu : National : New domestic low-cost airlines on the anvil

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Friday, Jul 01, 2005

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National

New domestic low-cost airlines on the anvil

T.S. Shankar

Entry likely to trigger price war and overcrowding of skies

CHENNAI: Taking advantage of the ``open sky policy,'' companies engaged in textiles, travel trade, liquor, and garments are diversifying into the civil aviation sector and launching low-cost airlines.

Paramount Airways, Indigo, and Magic, are the new domestic airlines that will take to the skies shortly. They will join Spice Jet, Kingfisher, and three existing private operators — Jet Airways, Air Sahara and Air Deccan. Mega expansion plans might trigger a price war but it will also lead to overcrowding of the skies, making the job of the Air Traffic Controllers all the more difficult.

While passengers are happy about the choices available, the Airports Authority of India, the custodian of the terminal building, is examining in detail the fleet acquisition proposals. Action will have to be taken to improve infrastructure on the ground and tackle the problem of over crowding of the skies.

Worrying factor

The main worrying factor before these new private airline operators is recruitment of training commanders and captains/co-pilots to fly the latest generation jetliners. Over 1,000 captains are required to make the plans of airlines come true.

``There is no way we can produce that number of commanders and there are not enough pilots even in the global market to meet the requirement of the mushrooming number of airlines,'' says a senior Boeing-737 check pilot based in Chennai.

With the apex regulatory body, the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation, allowing to log 1,000 flying hours a year , a minimum of 5 sets of cockpit crew per aircraft is required for domestic jet operations and a minimum of 8 sets of crew per aircraft for flying the international sectors, according to a aviation source who has specialised in the operations department.

The DGCA has stipulated that for a direct command on wide-bodied aircraft, a pilot shall have a minimum of 7,000 hours total and a minimum of 4,000 hours of command experience for jets with an all-up weight of 55,000 kg.

``Efforts are already on to dilute the minimum flying hours levels which could prove disastrous,'' the source said.

In this backdrop, the Air Passengers' Association of India has questioned the authenticity of the safety audits conducted by the DGCA. ``We have demanded creation of a Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority (CARA) on the lines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) to tackle such priority issues concerning passenger flight safety,'' D. Sudhakara Reddy, APAI president said.

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