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karatecatman · Guest

Pvt airlines skip ‘special’ routes

Pvt airlines skip ‘special’ routes

Sanjay Singh
NEW DELHI, May 14: Over two years have passed, but the civil aviation ministry has failed to nail private airlines for not adhering to ‘route dispersal guidelines’. These airline operators are not willing to fly on “uneconomical” routes such as the north-eastern region, Jammu & Kashmir, island territories and other interior regions which are not easily accessible by road or rail.
Most private airlines have been lobbying hard and have demanded that the route dispersal guidelines be either amended or scrapped. There are over 22 airports besides few other smaller airports where only the national carrier, Indian and its subsidiaries fly. Private airlines have been flying on only those routes which are commercially vibrant.
Officials of the national carriers feel private airlines should also display some social commitment. “Are we (national carriers) solely here to act for a social cause …” asked an Indian official. Senior officials in the Airports Authority of India (AAI) feel the Directorate General of Civil Aviation is largely responsible for giving too much concessions to private airliners.
No decision has been taken yet on the proposal to impose a surcharge to fund the minimum subsidy to be given to successful bidders to operate in the N-E, island territories and J&K.
The ministry of civil aviation had on 18 March 2005 formulated ‘route dispersal guidelines’ which provided for the air operators to operate at least 10 per cent of their deployment capacity on trunk routes in Category II routes which are meant to connect the northeastern region, Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.
The guidelines were aimed at ensuring the availability of a minimum level of air operations in Category II routes. However, the airline operations in Category II routes, being short-haul in nature, are loss-making. The operation of route dispersal guidelines is meant to cross-subsidise operations in Category II routes from the profits generated on trunk routes.
Recently, the DGCA had told the department-related parliamentary committee on transport, tourism and culture that there was significant growth in the domestic aviation sector. “Besides a comprehensive civil aviation policy is also under government’s active consideration,” it said.
According to a spokesperson of a private airline, all airlines are forced to operate on Category II routes. “The more appropriate way to ensure reliable air services in these areas would be to provide direct subsidies,” he said

(Posting in full as Statesman articles are removed online after a day)

Boeing7xx · Member Joined: 23 Dec 2006 Posts: 477 Location: WSSS

and people wonder why IC gets the dog end of the stick..... Pvt airlines aren't for charity is an acceptable statement, but then why is IC made to stick to these rules?

victor2alpha · Member Joined: 08 Apr 2007 Posts: 120

I guess the MoCA could make some changes so that the private carriers can skip it altogether Smile

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victor2alpha

TKMCE · Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 957

True of all airlines EXCEPT Air Deccan who is even better than Indian Airlines in terms of reach.

After all Indian Airlines doesnt fly to Pathankot,Rajhamundry. Tuticorin. Kolhapur.Belgaum, Kandla .... (the list goes on).

Worst culprit is Jet Airways who have ATRs but still fly mostly to major cities. Only exception I can think of is Diu and Porbandar (linked by the same flight).

KF atleast flies to a few more secondary cities (Vijaywada, Tirupati, Hubli, Agatti etc)

Nimish · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 6:23 pm Post subject:

victor2alpha · Member Joined: 08 Apr 2007 Posts: 120

Category I routes

TKMCE · Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 957

It is interesting to note that BOM TRV is one of the 12 Cat I routes , a clear indication of the fact that these route guidelines are in dire need of being revised.

BOM TRV is one of those routes which has hardly seen any growth as illustrated by the fact that other than Jet and Indian, only Air Deccan among domestic airlines has a flight on the route . There are just three daily flights while in comparison COK BOM which is a CAT III route has operations by IC, Jet (3 daily flights), Kingfisher, GO and Deccan in addition to flights by AI and AI Express, with capacity being more than double that in TRV.

TRV presence was s more due to the fact it was among one of one of the original five "international airports" under the erstwhile international airport authority of India. The traffic or lack of it on TRV BOM has been witnessed by the fact that Indian Airlines downgraded their service from a daily A300 to an A320 routing TRV BOM DEL. As more and more international flights started up from TRV to the middle east, the traffic growth on BOM TRV has seen an appreicable dip.

Birendra · Member Joined: 15 Feb 2007 Posts: 1411