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“We need to expand aviation infrastructure”

Vinay Kumar

Civil Aviation MiniaterPraful Patelspeaks about new airports, the Air India-Indian Airlines merger, and more during an interview at his office in New Delhi last week. Excerpts:

— Photo: V. Sudershan

Praful Patel: “We hope that in a year’s time the perception of Air India and Indian Airlines will begin to change and they will be moving into a new era.”

How far has the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines progressed?

It will be an absolutely perfect merger. The first flight of the new carrier, Air India, will be on August 1. The new aircraft, Boeing 777-Long Range, will take off on that day from Mumbai for New York; it will be a non-stop India-U.S. service. Let us put it this way: it will herald the beginning of a new Air India and by which time we will have our new aircraft flying in at regular intervals to join the fleet. So we hope that in a year’s time the perception of Air India and Indian Airlines will begin to change and they will be moving into a new era.

Air India Express and Alliance Air will become one entity under the brand name of Air India Express. There is Air India Cargo, we just flagged it off. Air India Express will be a low cost carrier on domestic and international sectors. We are inducting more turbo props and smaller regional jets also for domestic sectors. AI Express will be operating on domestic and international [sectors], it already has Gulf routes and also goes to South East Asia. It flies to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and Singapore from Chennai, Bangalore, and other cities. The role of AI Express will be to fly to all the nearby regions as well as have connections domestically. We will have a much larger footprint and it will compete with any other so-called low cost carrier.

We are pushing infrastructure to a great extent. Delhi will have by June next year the second runway operational and after that pressure for handling more flights will be completely eased. Of course, terminal capacity will be little constrained for some time but that really must not hamper operations. I went and inspected Bangalore and Hyderabad airports.

Pretty good. Both will be operational by March 2008. They are really coming up very well. Truly world class airports. All our major airports will be A-380 compliant where this superjumbo will be able to land and take-off.

Yes, we have the Cabinet clearance for Chennai. [The] Airports Authority of India is drawing up plans quickly. We want to make it comparable to Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore or Hyderabad and we are getting a top international company to give us a master plan and design. It will be a global competition. We will get the best technical expertise. Chennai and Kolkata both will have really world class airports. We will give it as a turnkey project for construction. We will bring in a lot of new things, it will not be a typically AAI airport. We will ask AAI to compete with the private sector and show that they are coming up with an airport as good as may be Bangalore and Hyderabad. And Chennai has to compete with both Bangalore and Hyderabad because both these cities are getting new world class airports. This will have to be a first class facility.

That’s why I am promoting 35 non-metro airports. I am also promoting the concept of private merchant airports. We need more infrastructure and unless we are able to expand infrastructure in a time-bound manner, our growth in civil aviation will not be able to sustain itself.

But that is set to change. And it will change; we will make sure it changes. The key to success is infrastructure on the ground, infrastructure in the air, and manpower development.

We will handle with two runways in Delhi the same number of flights a busy airport like Frankfurt, Singapore or Munich can handle. There is no question of lagging behind any of the world class airports.

It has also been cleared by the Cabinet. We will now proceed. We are in talks with the Maharashtra Government to quickly address all the land issues. We will complete the bidding process by the middle of next year. Once the State government delivers the additional land it has promised, I am going to have a meeting and resolve all the issues to be completed before construction; planning first and then design. We will make it a world class airport regardless of whether it is an AAI airport or not. My only worry is after June next year, when Delhi gets its second runway, the only major infrastructural bottleneck will be in Mumbai.

We must have multiple airports and that’s why we are saying that the private merchant airport is a step in that direction. Across the country we must have as many airports as are commercially justified and it is not the business of the government to make all the new airports. If the private sector wants to come and make new airports like a commercial venture — like somebody builds a factory or mall and if we feel that somebody can make an airport and make commercial sense out of it — we must look at it positively. The new merchant airport policy will be notified soon. In the U.S. there are 5,200 airports, India can at least have 500 airports versus the 80 operational now and about 120 lying with State governments and with AAI which are not being used commercially. And until we have as many airports, we will not be able to sustain the growth in aviation.

No airport is a constraint, there is no other way you can sustain aviation. I believe that equitable growth in the country, development in remote regions and in areas which have not yet seen the fruits of growth should be the way to move forward. Yes, the Uttar Pradesh government has given some data; we are also collating further.

Physical and air security is with us and that is not a problem. Security will be handled by the State. Air traffic will be handled by the government.

Some of the current discussion is purely useless and academic. The Defence side is saying more air space is available for civil aviation. They want a little bit more dialogue, that is all. And I am saying further liberalisation of air services [is required] not only in domestic but also in international sector. International airlines account for 80 per cent of inbound and outbound traffic, so why shouldn’t Indian carriers get more share of the market, which is also growing rapidly at an annual rate of 25 per cent?

It is a logical argument. I am not even going into details but the fact is that within our country we have so much opportunity to grow vis-À-vis the rest of the world and aviation is a win-win situation.

You are creating more infrastructure, more economic activity, more tourism, more foreign exchange and more jobs. My estimate is that aviation will be able to create 20 lakh more jobs in the next 10 years.

There is a commercial environment and airlines should function in a way they feel is good for them. We as government should not decide what is good or bad for them. India is moving towards a satellite-based navigation system GAGAN from next year.

We will be the fourth country in the world having a satellite-based system that will be able to handle more air traffic, more securely, safely and that is also important to reassure everybody that Indian skies are safe no matter what the traffic up there. Still very small by international standards but we are upgrading our entire navigation and communication system. It will be operational by next mid-year. Only three other countries, the U.S., Japan, and the U.K., have it.

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