Finally! National Civil
Heralding a new era of flying, the National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) was finally approved by the cabinet on June 15, 2016, after much debate and discussion. The new policy opens up opportunities for new and existing aviation players alike, encouraging
While many arguable points are settled, NCAP brings in many passenger-friendly measures, promotes regional connectivity and gives the much-needed boost to the domestic aviation sector. A delighted P. Ashok Gajapathi
Raju, Civil Aviation Minister, said, “We had unveiled the Draft Civil Aviation Policy only a few months back and since then a nationwide discussion has happened and we had received 450 good suggestions. There have been extensive interactions with all the stakeholders, be it airlines or airports, and we even had an informal consultation with a group of ministers. Finally, the cabinet has come to conclusion. The entire civil aviation department and all the secretaries have worked very hard on this, but the centrepiece of this policy is the commitment of making regional connectivity a reality.” Explaining the salient points of the policy, Rajiv Nayan Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said, “It is the first time that an integrated Civil Aviation Policy has been decided and put into operation. It is a progressive step. The fulcrum of this policy is to take flying to the masses by making it affordable and convenient. Apart from that, with the policy, we are proposing to create an ecosystem which will promote tourism. It would lead to employment generation and balance the regional growth because there are many airports and airstrips which are in contact with the backward parts of the country, and will get revived with this policy.”
Regional Connectivity
Choubey said that regional connectivity is one of the biggest highlights of the policy and they have worked not only on making airports available to remote areas, but also capping the airfares in such regions. “The regional connectivity scheme will be put into operation in the second quarter of 2016-17, i.e. July-September. And we have proposed an airfare of about 2500 for a one hour flight that includes at least one Tier-II or Tier-III city. And to implement the same, we will revive the already existing air strips as no frills airports at an indicative cost of 50-100 crore. There is a goldmine of 350 unused air strips and airports which were built during and after World War II. The revival of the airports will happen in a phased manner and will be demand driven. It will only happen in those states which are ready to reduce the VAT on Airline Turbine Fuel to one per cent and offer other support services and 20 per cent of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to airline operators.”
The new policy trashed the much debated 5/20 rule and replaced it with the 0/20 rule, which doesn’t bar any airline to fly international, provided they have a fleet size of at least 20 aircraft. “We wanted the airlines to fly quickly so that there is greater competition, and thus the revised rule says that all airlines can commence their international operations provided they have 20 aircrafts. If that is there, they don’t even have to wait even for a day. However, the airlines must deploy 20 per cent of their total capacity for domestic operations,” said Choubey.
Raju added, “We want Indian players to serve Indians first. And 20 aircraft is a good mark for serving Indian skies and also fly abroad.”
Apart from these main points, the policy states that India will enter into ‘Open Sky’ ASA on reciprocal basis with SAARC countries located beyond 5000 km from Delhi. The policy is dedicated towards bringing down the operational cost of flying, and hence they 5/20 changed to 0/20