AAI sets up panel to study hiving off air navigation services

Reviving a long-pending proposal, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has set up a two-member expert panel to explore ways to hive off air navigation services into a separate entity.
Even though the idea to make Air Navigation Services (ANS) a separate and independent unit was mooted in 1970s, there has not been much movement forward despite some detailed studies being done in this regard.
The two-member expert panel comprises former Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla and former DGCA Chief Satinder Singh, a senior official said.
According to the official, the committee, which would look at ways of making ANS a separate unit from AAI, is expected to submit its report within three months.

The setting up of the panel assumes significance against the backdrop of rising domestic air traffic which is expected to go up further following the implementation of the new civil aviation policy.
A separate ANS will be able to provide full attention to this crucial segment of the aviation sector as well as help improve the overall communication network surveillance and air traffic management.

Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) services, which provides infrastructure, as well as Air Traffic Management (ATM), which coordinates the traffic, comes under AAI.
More than a third of the AAI's total revenue comes from ANS services.

Since 1976, various committees have suggested hiving off air navigation services into a separate unit.
The domestic aviation sector has been making good strides in recent months and the number of air passengers rose 22 per cent in May.
"We have shown a growth of 22 per cent and it has never happened anywhere else in the world before. No other country has achieved 22 per cent growth rate today," Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey had said on June 8.
In the new civil aviation policy, the government has mentioned that sale of air tickets could touch 35 crores.

"If every Indian in middle class income bracket takes just one flight in a year, it would result in a sale of 35 crore tickets, a big jump from 7 crore domestic tickets sold in 2014-15," the new civil aviation policy, released earlier this month, said.