Govt is working on 4-pronged strategy to boost airports capacity: Jayant Sinha
The Dollar Business Bureau The Government is working on a four-pronged strategy in order to boost the capacity of airports all over India, said Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Wednesday. “We have been spending a lot of time thinking and planning about what we should do about airport capacity, we are working on four different aspects,” Sinha said while inaugurating a civil aviation conference organised by ASSOCHAM in New Delhi. The Minister further said that his ministry is working simultaneously on boosting the capacity at key airport hubs of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai and is also working to develop new brown-field and green-field airports as well as smaller airports in tier III and IV cities. “We are significantly ...
Civil Aviation Policy envisages growth of cargo volumes to 10 mn tonnes by 2027
The Dollar Business Bureau The National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016 has envisaged growth of cargo volumes to 10 million tonnes by 2027. As per data maintained by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), air freight handled at Indian airports grew by more than 20 times from 0.08 million metric tonnes in 1972-73 to 2.5 million metric tonnes in 2014-15, and its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was 8.8% during 2013-14 to 2016-17. Measured in million tonne-kilometers, the data maintained by the World Bank also shows that air freight transported by India went up from 96.3 million tonne-kilometers in 1970 to 1,833.8 million tonne-kilometers in 2015. As per data maintained by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), air freight handled at Indian airports ...
Government has awarded 128 routes to 5 airlines under the UDAN scheme
The Dollar Business Bureau The Government has awarded 128 routes connecting 43 unserved and under-served airports to 5 selected airlines for commencing operations under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) - UDAN in the 1st round of bidding. RCS flights from six RCS airports - Shimla, Nanded, Kandla, Porbandar Gwalior & Bhatinda- have already commenced. The 2nd round of bidding under RCS-UDAN is likely to commence soon. The Ministry of Civil Aviation launched RCS-UDAN scheme on 21-10-2016 to facilitate/stimulate regional air connectivity by making it affordable. Promoting affordability of Regional air connectivity is envisioned under RCS by supporting airline operators through (i) concessions by Central Government, State Governments and airport operators to reduce the cost of airline operations on regional routes and (ii) financial ...
18% GST on international freight to make air-cargo non-competitive: PHDCCI
The Dollar Business Bureau Imposing Goods and Services Tax (GST) on international freight is going to make India’s air cargo services "non-competitive", said industry body PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) on Wednesday. Earlier, under service tax regime, freighters were exempted to pay any tax, whereas now they have been levied with 18% GST. “Putting 18% GST on international freight is totally unfair as this will impact the air cargo growth, said PHDCCI in a statement issued after an Air Cargo Summit, which is organised by the industry body on Wednesday in New Delhi. “Why would the Government of India want Indian exporters to pay extra 18% GST on freight and make our goods non-competitive in international market,” the statement said. Vipin Vohra, Co-Chairman, ...
Indigo interested to buy out Air Indias international services
The Dollar Business Bureau Soon after the Cabinet cleared the consideration of Air India's disinvestment, leading domestic airline IndiGo has shown its willingness in buying the flight operations of the national carrier, specifically overseas services. IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh sent a letter to the Minister of Civil Aviation Gajapathi Raju expressing interest to buy out the international services of Air India as the airline looks to spread its operations overseas. “Kindly treat this letter as our expression of interest in acquiring the international airline operations of Air India and Air India Express. Alternatively, we are equally interested in acquiring all of the airline operations of Air India and Air India Express,” said Ghosh in the letter. IndiGo is a leader in the domestic market ...
UDAN scheme across BIMSTEC region mooted by Sinha
The Dollar Business Bureau Jayant Sinha, the Union minister for Civil Aviation proposed the Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme that would connect the smaller towns across the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) region. Adding that such a move will be similar on the lines of the Open Sky Agreement that India enjoys with the SAARC countries, he said, "We can sign an MoU with different countries to be able to provide support for an UDAN-type scheme across the BIMSTEC community. Of course, we will have to couple that with something like an Open Sky Agreement so that airlines can fly freely," Sinha told reporters. Under the Open Sky Agreement (OSA), signed in 2016, New ...
Airfares to be revised on quarterly basis, under UDAN
The Dollar Business Bureau Airfares and subsidy by the government to airlines under UDAN scheme will be reviewed on quarterly basis depending on the inflation. The UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme, which seeks to connect under-served and un-served airports, provides for a limit on prices of air tickets and viability gap funding (VGF) for the airlines. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has said that VGF and caps on the prices of air tickets under the UDAN scheme would be revised every three months. The airfares would be associated with inflation, while VGF would be considered on the basis of inflation, aviation turbine fuel cost and dollar-rupee exchange rates. The first flight, under the UDAN scheme, took off from Shimla to New Delhi, last month. “Both airfare and ...
100 more airports in 2-3 years under UDAN: Jayant Sinha
Aamir H Kaki Minister for State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha, on Friday said that under the UDAN scheme, the government is slated to create 100 more airports in the next 2-3 years. “In one year, under UDAN, we have added 31 new airports. Eventually, over the next 2-3 years we can add 100 more airports to the existing 75. So that we have 175-200 airports,” he detailed while speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Annual Session 2017. Briefing about UDAN, he said, “We have created a market-friendly innovative scheme that lures the airlines to go to these under-served markets.” “India is the 3rd largest aviation market now. We have 160 million passenger trips a year,” Sinha said. ...
