Minister for Civil Aviation has formed three committees to advise him on critical issues of the industry.
The three advisory committees for airlines, airports and maintenance and repair organisations and flight training institutes, comprise CEOs and promoters.
The Union Minister will chair the committees, the group will meet once every month to sort out issues, which can be regulatory or financial.
Hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, airlines in India continue to incur huge losses with no signs of a recovery in near future. According to rating agency ICRA, Indian airlines had seen net losses of Rs 21,000 crore in FY21 and estimated a net loss of Rs 12,700 crore for FY22, with the industry debt level increasing to around Rs 50,000 crore in the ongoing fiscal.
Co-ordination between the government and industry is very critical now as civil aviation has been one of the worst hit sectors by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Hence, through this arrangement, industry captains can straight away regularly make the minister aware of the issues that need urgent attention.
THE COMMITTEE FOR AIRLINES
The committee for airlines consists of airline promoters- Rahul Bhatia of IndiGo, Ajay Singh of SpiceJet, Ness Wadia from Go Air, Sunil Bhaskaran, CEO of AirAsia India, Bhaskar Bhat, chairman of Vistara and Raiv Bansal, CMD of Air India.
The committee will advise the government on steps required to- improve domestic and international connectivity, improve financial viability of airlines and other regulatory issues.
THE COMMITTEE ON AIRPORTS
Similarly the committee on airports has representation from GBS Raju, head of airports division at GMR group, Hari Marar, CEO of Bangalore International Airport, Jeet Adani- head of airports business at Adani group.
The group will be meeting every month to suggest steps required to enhance airport capacity, infrastructure modernisation and improving customer experience.
THE COMMITTEE ON MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR ORGANISATIONS
The third advisory group would comprise four sub-groups: one each on MRO, ground handling, cargo and FTO. Each of the sub-group would have four industry executives as members who work in that particular industry.
It will also spell out steps needed to be taken to expand this sector. The civil aviation industry, facing huge losses due to the ongoing pandemic, is betting on newly-appointed Union civil aviation minister , Jyotiraditya Scindia to accelerate key reforms long sought by the sector.
The industry has been sharply divided over a government decision to control capacity and fare despite deregulating the aviation industry in 1994, allowing market forces to determine the fares in order to safeguard airlines with weaker financials like SpiceJet and Go Air.
However, a clause in the Aircraft Act, 1934, which governs aviation in India, allows the government to frame any rules, including those related to the regulation of tariffs. However, in 2020, when the airlines were allowed to restart operations after a closure of two months, the government started the practice of controlling capacity and airfare.