Government to review its decision on A380 operations to India: Ajit Singh

Interview with Civil aviation minister

The civil aviation ministry has faced charges of favouritism in allocating 36,000 additional seats to Abu Dhabi. Its decision to disallow airlines from flying airbus A380 aircraft into India and its restrictive rules on maiden international operations by domestic airlines have also attracted criticism. Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh in an interview with Aneesh Phadnis and Sharmistha Mukherjee says that he is reviewing various issues related to A380 operations to India. Edited excerpts:

Has the government decided to review its decision on allowing A380s to fly into India.
We have to consider the airport infrastructure. We need to consider what will be the impact on security queues or ground handling after an airbus A380 plane lands with 550 passengers lands at an airport. Can any other aircraft land at that time. I have asked the ministry to find out time slots when these problems would not be there so that other airlines and their passengers are not inconvenienced.

The second problem we will have to address is with regard to bilaterals. With many countries our bilaterals are by number of flights and not by number of seats. We will have to modify them.We will have to discuss it with other governments. I am reviewing these issues.

Is the government planning to relax rules to allow domestic carriers with less than five years of operation to fly abroad?
For what ever reasons the rule was made at that point of time and to change it we will require consensus. The DGCA has to be consulted on why it put five years. Other airlines have to be consulted.

How is Air India performing?
I have reviewed Air India's  plans for next 2-3 years. In FY 2012 the airline posted a EBIDTA loss of Rs 2300 crore. In the last fiscal it made a Rs 19 crore EBIDTA profit. This year the plan is to generate Rs 1000 crore EBIDTA profit. We have formed a cost cutting committee. On implementation of cost saving recommendations the airline management expects to save another Rs 500 crore. The airline's on time performance has gone up. I have reviewed international operations. All the flights which were losing money are now generating cash profit. The fuel costs of Boeing 787 Dreamliner are less. Plus travellers too like the aircraft because of comfort level.

I want Air India to focus on South East Asia. The economic growth too is taking place there whether it in Singapore, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. There is no competition (in this regions) from Gulf countries. I have asked the airline to look at Chennai and Bangalore as hub. If Air India is a national carrier it should have footprint all over India.

What is the status of Air India's asset monetisation ?
The airline has identified certain priorities. There have been some problems. Air India owns some of the properties for over a long period and was not in possession of proper documents for some of the properties. That problem has more or less been solved. We have appointed a three member committee to oversee the implementation. I hope this year they may gain Rs 1000 crore or so atleast.

Will the airline meet its asset monetisation target?
Lets see.

Is the civil aviation ministry doing anything new on the ATF issue?
I have discussed the issue within the government. The GST is coming next year. We will need concurrence of all states. That is where the problem lies. Unless all the state finance ministers agree it is not possible for the Centre to do much

So there will be a uniform GST on ATF?
That is  a big if. In many parts of country they still think that air travel is still for elite. They do not realise that it is vital sector

for the economy.  So there are concerns.