Hyderabad: The government’s new aviation policy appears to have become successful even before it was formally announced, as small airlines and small aircraft manufacturers believe in its positive impact on the Indian aviation. “Air travel is biggest booster to the economy. The government is understanding this now. That’s why they are trying to improve regional connectivity through subsidising air travel between metros and hinterland. They are becoming more and more liberal,” said Captain Madhu K. Valsaraj, president and chief pilot of Deccan.
Earlier in the day, civil aviation secretary R.K. Choubey said the proposed civil aviation policy offers liberal code sharing between airlines. It allows regional airline to tie-up with domestic or international airline. “With this, you can fly from Toronto to Gorakhpur or Jhansi to Amsterdam.” A code-share agreement is an arrangement where two or more airlines share the same flight. A seat can be purchased from an airline on a flight that is actually operated by another airline under a different flight number or code.
To simplify it further, on a single ticket a person in Rourkela in Sundergarh district of Odisha can fly to Bhubaneswar in a 10-seater aircraft of Air Odisha, then take IndiGo flight to Delhi and then take a British Airways flight to London. Small aircraft makers like French ATR, Brazilian Embraer, etc are happy. “ATRs are considered very well in India. With the new government policy to develop more regional connectivity, it is creating a lot of interest in the ATRs for these type of markets and these types of routes where the traffic is thinner,” said John Moore, head of global sales, ATR. It sells 42-seater and 72 seater aircraft. Asked about whether India has enough manpower to run such huge addition of aircraft, Capt. Valsaraj said there are 10,000 unemployed pilots and there won’t be any shortage in terms of manpower.
