Govt to finalise passenger charter, air cargo policy this year: Prabhu

To further bolster the domestic aviation market, the government will finalise the passenger charter as well as the air cargo policy this year, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu has said.

India is one of the fastest growing domestic aviation markets in the world, clocking double-digit growth for more than two years.

In April this year, domestic air passenger volume surged 26 per cent to 11.51 million compared to the year-ago period.

"This year, we will finalise the passenger charter. We will (also) finalise the cargo policy and the intra-city chopper services for point-to-point pick up and drop," Prabhu told PTI in an interview.

The NDA government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has completed four years.

Prabhu said the cargo policy would provide a thrust to air cargo and would fuel the growth of the sector.

Last week, the ministry came out with the draft air passenger charter, that seeks to address issues related to flight delays, cancellations and others.

The draft charter has proposed that passengers would be compensated Rs 20,000 on missing connecting flights if the delay is over 12 hours and Rs 10,000 if the delay is between 4-12 hours.

"Once you deregulate, then you have no control on pricing. So how do you bring that control?. Therefore, we are saying that passenger charter will be introduced and that will be the guiding principle for the airlines about various issues like cancellation and different charges they put," Prabhu said.

The draft charter has been placed in public domain as part of consultation process.

As part of efforts to connect more places by air, the government has been pushing for helicopter services.

Under the ambitious regional air connectivity scheme -- UDAN -- some players have won bids to operate helicopters on certain routes.

UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) seeks to connect unserved and under-served airports as well as make flying more affordable.

Next month, Himachal Pradesh government along with Pawan Hans Ltd would be starting heli-taxi service between Chandigarh and Shimla.