The Hindu : Work for brand India, airlines told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Work for brand India, airlines told

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Aug. 25 . The Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, today called upon the civil aviation industry to make its service world class.

Addressing industry members here, Mr. Rudy said to make this happen, the Government had come up with a civil aviation policy, which would address the needs of operators, who on their part should recognise the needs of passengers. Accessibility of air travel to the common man was what the operators should think of, he said and said it was time to talk of civil aviation as a major infrastructure.

On the competition in the skies, Mr. Rudy said it was good for the industry. The market share of Indian Airlines had come down from 65 per cent to 40 per cent. While there had to be competition among the several players, it was necessary for them to build "brand India".

There was scope to increase traffic from the present 12 million passengers in Mumbai and eight million in Delhi annually. London alone had about 60 million passengers.

There was need to create financial hubs for which airports had to be developed, he said and added that the number of "ports of call" had to be regulated to create financial hubs such as Singapore, Heathrow and so on.

The Managing Director of HAL, Bangalore complex, A.K. Saxena, said the HAL would soon build civil aviation aircraft and it was associating with Israel for conversion of passenger aircraft to cargo.

The Regional Executive Director of the Airports Authority of India, B.N.M. Rao, said the AAI was providing world class service at 120 airports as per the standards stipulated in international civil aviation manuals.

The Assistant Commissioner, Customs, M. Mallikarjunaiah, said Bangalore was becoming an important centre which was reflected in the Rs. 8 crore foreign travel tax collected here, double that of last year.

MoU with Lufthansa

The Civil Aviation Ministry is signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Lufthansa this week as per which the Southern region — Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Kochi, — will have increased flight connectivity.

Mr. Rudy said that from December 9, Bangalore and Hyderabad would have three flights each of Lufthansa, and four each of Air India, and Kochi would have four flights of Lufthansa and three of Air India.

Besides, Bangalore would have two direct flights to the U.S.

As per the understanding, Lufthansa would enable Air India to get a slot at the Frankfurt Airport. British Airways, he said, wanted to operate more flights, but was not keen on helping Air India to get a slot at the Heathrow airport. "Whatever bilateral agreements we have with British Airways, we will honour that," he said.

Mr. Rudy said the proposal of Indian Airlines to acquire 43 aircraft was before the Public Investment Board (PIB) after the Indian Airlines Board had finalised the techno-economic bid.

Without mentioning which aircraft would be purchased and at what price, he said it would be A319, A320, and A321 versions.

After the PIB stage, it would go to the Cabinet Committee for Security and then to the Cabinet and it would be almost 18 months before the aircraft was added to the IA fleet.

As for Air India, he said, the proposal to purchase 17 long haul wide-bodied aircraft (10 confirmed basis and 7 optional) and 18 short haul aircraft (12 confirmed basis and six optional) was till at the board level.

The new civil aviation policy, he said, should be frozen by October this year. The new environment required a policy having a vision statement to make the industry a world class one.

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