Discussion on Civil Aviation Issues

Participants - Civil Aviation Experts Anu Sharman and Arindham Mazumdar

Context - The crisis faced by the civil aviation industry due to the COVID crisis.

Vande Bharat Mission

India is bringing back its citizens under this repatriation programme during the past 3-4 months.
It is one of the biggest evacuation operations.
1100 Flights already operated under this programme.
50% Inbound passengers from the Middle East and 50% Outbound Passengers have been to countries like the US and Canada.
Total more than 60.8 lakh passengers brought back by the Indian Airlines.
Due to COVID most countries shutdown their borders and many Indian were trapped in countries across the world. They were also facing job and employment losses.
It has been a record - Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri compared it to the 1990 Airlift of 1.7 lakh Indian from Kuwait.
Vande Bharat Mission still is continuing.
Due to growing demand, the Ministry of Civil Aviation roped Indian private carriers like Indigo, Vistara, Air India Express for repatriation.
Air India has flown across the world like London, New york. They have also flown to 30 new destinations like Djibouti which they have never flown.
The mission is being extended and Air India will come up with a new Schedule of repatriation along with private carriers.
Private Carriers also do Charter flights. It helps them to generate revenue. They are operating Multiple such flights from the Gulf.
Fares of repatriation flights have been capped by the government so that Indian coming back are not exploited.
More than 2.15 lakh people have come back to India by Air India as of July 15th. Under Phase 4 of Vande Bharat mission Air India will bring back 1.2 lakh passengers.
Vande Bharat Flights are being considered as the first step in resuming international flights.

Air Bubble or Travel Bubble - It is a special corridor between two countries with limited number of flights. They will be on lines of Vande Bharat Mission where special categories of passengers will be allowed. It is not free for all travel.

Air France will operate about 28 flights and a US airline which will operate another 18 flights.
Soon more air bubbles will be created between various countries. However, it will depend on the quarantine rules of other nations.
India is in negotiation with the US, France and Germany for such bubbles.
More such Bubbles will depend on the negotiations and stand of other countries on such air travel and COVID crisis.
There is also an issue with our domestic regulation of air travel in response to COVID. For instance Bangalore imposed lockdown recently.

Currently civil aviation is operating not even at 33% of utilization of flight capacity. We need to reach at least 50 to 55% utilization of existing capacity before thinking about resumption of International Flights.

Steps by Air India to tackle its financial pressure

Air India has played a vital role in Vande Bharat with bringing back 60% of passengers under this mission. However, Air India is suffering a big financial crisis and needs equity infusion from the government. But the Government may not be in position to supply that equity because of other commitments because of COVID 19. As a result Air India has announced cost cutting measures like salary cut and leave without pay and job cuts.

Almost all airlines are taking such measures as they have been financial hit by COVID pandemic
Even before COVID Air India had huge debt to service to the tune of 60,000 crore rupees.
In this scenario such cost cutting measures are justified as without these measures Airline might not be able to survive which will be detrimental for all employees.

Fare Cap

Fare has been capped since May 25 - there is an upper limit and lower limit on fares on every route that Airline operates.

It is in the interest of both consumers and airlines as in case of low demand if fares fall much below than operating cost then airlines may go bust.
On the other hand there is concern that without cap airlines could jack up the fares to recover their cost therefore it has been capped.
Given the current situation this air cap needs to be extended further beyond august as airlines are still operating at less than 33% capacity.

Drones

Drones are Unmanned Aerial object and not controlled by Pilot
20 thousand manufacturers have registered with the government.
It is an ambitious project of government for drones under Digi Sky Programme.
Indian Oil has sought a mission from the government for pipeline checking. Also being used for housing project and project implementation on a real time basis.
There is a widespread need to use drones in e-commerce business.
This industry is facing some key issues.There is concern about the security using drones.
Drones have been able to control Locust menace in Rajasthan by spraying pesticides from high altitude which could not have been possible otherwise.
Government is pushing this sector for domestic manufacturing and domestic operations. There exist 16 yellow zones where one can test their drones and show its utility.