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This was stated by Mr. Ashok Lavasa, Secretary
Civil Aviation in the inaugural session of the
seminar on ‘Enhancing Air Connectivity’ at the
day two of the India Aviation 2014 organised by
FICCI.
There has been a phenomenal growth of the Indian
aviation sector in the last decade to reach out
to the consume at the bottom of the pyramid. From
an era of low cost airlines now the shift is “towards
creating low cost airports to take it a step further
and also bring down the high operating costs in
the sector. We are working towards a framework
where state, central, and the airlines make collaborative
efforts”, thereby enhance passenger traffic in
non metro cities that would lead to an era of
regional connectivity. An initiative in this direction
has been taken by several state governments. He
informed that several state governments had responded
to industry’s call to ease the burden of taxation
on the aviation sector by drastically bringing
down the VAT charges on ATF. He also suggested
that viability gap funding could also be considered
for developing low cost airports if desire by
the industry.
A cabinet note has been circulated to create
a separate body for air navigation as we need
to separate air navigation from the Airport Authority
of India to give further impetus to the sector.
Regional connectivity and route dispersal policy
has been formulated. Mr. Ashok Lavasa talked about
“involvement of Indian manufacturing sector in
this entire business of aeronautics manufacturing
so that it could be harnessed with the growth
of the civil aviation. A dialogue on creating
aeronautics manufacturing facility for the aviation
sector has been triggered at the 4th International
Exhibition & Conference on Civil Aviation being
held from at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad.
General, FICCI said, “Indian Civil aviation sector
cannot be looked at as merely aviation services
and consumer market. As a large industrial economy
India must gain excellence in the MRO industry
(Maintenance, Repair & Operations) as well as
enter the realm of technology and manufacturing
in this vast sector. FICCI will work with the
civil aviation industry to support this endeavour”.
A knowledge paper was on “Enhancing Air Connectivity”
prepared in association with ministry of aviation,
FICCI and KPMG was released on the occasion. Mr.
Amber Dubey, partner and head –aerospace and defense,
KPMG presented the theme paper on the event.
Mr. Henry Steingass, Regional Director - South
and Southeast Asia, US Trade and Development Agency
(USTDA), the corporate partner country for the
event said, “Aviation is one the drivers of the
economy. Our democracies share commonalities where
the nature of economy is driven by free enterprise.
We need to look at aviation for the vast need
of transportation of passage as well as cargo
traffic and strengthen our economy. And this is
where the US system is most evolved in handling
the traffic. This is where the challenge that
India faces and keeping our commonality we can
respond to Indian need. Of course India is striving
in its own way to meet the challenges in the area
of safety threats.
Drawing a comparison between the two economies
and holding the edge that India enjoys over US
he said “India does not suffer from the legacy
of negative systems as most of the airlines are
new. Moreover in the management of air traffic
system in US we are making a transition from radar
based to satellite based air navigation system
where India can leap frog to manage through satellite
system. India is very much in apposition of being
a global leader from being a major player in south
Asia.”
India is now moving towards an era from where
the elitist tag is removed in the sector where
the dream of flying is being realized by the common
people. Promoting General aviation, MRO services,
use of flexi aero space, financing air transport,
emerging technologies for improving connectivity
were some of the other thrust areas that were
in the forefront of the day- long seminar that
saw the bigwigs of the international aviation
industry, key stake holders from the Indian aviation
industry, experts and government officials brain
storm on taking the aviation sector to greater
heights.
Dr Vivek Lall, noted aerospace expert, observed
that new airports would require well trained personnel
and their training in contemporary and futuristic
systems would be a big challenge.
Mr Pritam Bhavnani, President of Honeywell Aerospace
India said that use nand application of technologicaly
had to be judicious. He made an excellent presentation
on cost sustainability, pointing out that travel
costs could be reduced by minimising certain facilities
at smaller airports.
Mr Nalin Jain, President and CEO of GE Aviation,
suggested that airports and airlines should be
totally in sync without anyconflict of interest.
Players from the Civil Aviation industry and
officers from the Civil Aviation Ministry and
armed forces attended the seminar.
- (With inputs from Shweta Sehgal)
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