NEW DELHI: Union aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has formed three advisory groups covering all areas of the Covid-ravaged sector. The groups, comprising of industry leaders, will be meeting Scindia — in a bid to improve industry-government coordination — every month to apprise him of the critical steps needed to be taken to revive the sector.
Based on that, the government will take key decisions with Scindia’s recommendations for the sector aimed at improving the overall financial health of the sector that will lead to better connectivity, both domestic and international.
“Under the chairmanship of aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, ministry has formed three advisory groups comprising airlines, airport operators and MRO, cargo carriers.. and ground handling companies. The groups shall meet regularly to deliberate upon issues and resolve challenges facing each sector. Orders have been issued for the same,” the aviation ministry tweeted on Wednesday.
These groups will have, apart from Scindia and the minister of state, top officials from the ministry and organisations like AAI, DGCA and AERA and key representatives from private sector.
The airline group has among its members three promoters — IndiGo’s Rahul Bhatia, SpiceJet’s Ajay Singh and GoAir’s Ness Wadia; CEO/CMDs — AirAsia India’s Sunil Bhaskaran, Vistara’s Bhaskar Bhat, Air India’s Rajiv Bansal and Alliance Air CEO. This group will advise on issues like how to enhance domestic and international connectivity, improve passenger experience, improve financial viability of airlines and on regulatory matters.
The airports group includes AAI chairman Sanjeev Kumar; GMR Group airport head G B S Raju; Bangalore Airport CEO Hari Marar and Adani Group airport head Jeet Adani. They will spell out steps needed to enhance capacity, augment infrastructure, enhance amenities for flyers and advise on capex performance.
The third group comprises of key people from MROs, ground handling, cargo and flying training organisations. It will also spell out steps needed to be taken to expand this sector.
One of the first things the aviation ministry has to decide on whether to free up control on domestic airfares and capacity. Since May 25, 2020, when scheduled domestic flights resumed after a two-month lockdown-period suspension, the ministry has been deciding what percentage of pre-Covid domestic flights airlines can operate as well as spelling out from time to time the domestic fare range.
The airline industry is divided on this issue. Some string players feel capacity and ricing should be market-driven and not be controlled by the government. Some financial weak players fear that deep pocket airlines may resort to predatory pricing and drive them out of business. Now, the government has to decide how long will it control these twin issues of domestic capacity and pricing.
