Aviation will not be a bottleneck to India's economy: Raju

He said the plan to create no-frills airports is going to be a big game changer in the country

Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Wednesday said his Ministry would not allow the aviation sector to become a bottleneck for India's growth.

India is a big country and its growing needs have to be taken care of by all the important sectors, he said adding that the aviation sector would rather play a complementary role in the future development of the country.

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The new aviation policy, which would be approved by the Union Cabinet by next month, has all the ingredients to take sector to a new level, he said  

Citing the presence of a higher number of aviation companies in the ongoing  India Aviation Show as a sign of positive things in store for this sector,  the minister as well as Secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation R N Choubey said the plan to create no-frills airports is going to be a big game changer in the country.

Only 70 million out of 350 million Indian middle class people take air travel despite their purchasing power parity being equal to their European counterparts. This was because of lack of smaller airports and higher fares even for relatively smaller distances, according to them.

"All that we have today are 75 airports where the scheduled airlines fly.Imagine what will happen in the aviation sector if 50 airports are added to this number each year as we plan to create all those 350-odd wartime airstrips in to no frills airports," Choubey said.

Responding to a question Minister Raju and Choubey said the government was willing to offer more fiscal concessions over and above the measures already taken to bring the $ 700 million Maintenance, Repair and Overhauling(MRO) business to the country. With these measures the country may even attract a  $ 2 billion worth of MRO business from the neighboring countries.

On the 5/20 condition, where the airlines that completed 5 years of experience and own 20 air crafts will only be allowed to operate international flights, the minister said there was going to be an unambiguous decision by the government soon.

Terming the Air India's debt as different from that of the now-defunct King Fisher Airlines, Minister Gajapati Raju said the national carrier has already started making operational profit last year and it was on way to turn around a year and half ahead of the plan.

The airline company has been consistently showing healthy performance since December last year as the passenger load, yield and utilsation factors were considerably improving for the company, according to Choubey.

The ongoing India Aviation Show has 30 per cent more participation by delegates with 210 companies, delegates from 25 countries taking part at the five-day event.