Dgca Favours Consistent Policy On Discounts

The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) is not opposed to airlines offering heavy discounts as long as long as it was uniformly applied to all passengers, director general of civil aviation H S Khola has saidhere.

Khola, who is here to participate in a seminar on flight safety, said, we only want them to apply this rate to all passengers uniformly without discrimination something that happened a couple of years back. We are keen to avoid a similar situation from arising again.

He stated that it was for the airlines to decide the period of the discount. We have absolutely no say in the matter, he added.

 

Lufthansa, Air France and American Airlines will be filing their fare structures for both incoming and outgoing flights with the DGCA soon.

On flight safety within the country, he said the country will soon shift to a satellite-based communication navigation and surveillance system, which will be cost-effective and available throughout the country.

New equipment will have to be fitted in the aircraft to enable them to receive the signals. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) have been working on this for almost two years now and will soon launch their equipment, he said.

Apart from HAL and BEL, the defence ministry, department of electronics and department of civil aviation have also contributed to the development costs.

According to preliminary indicators, for every rupee that is spent in development, two rupees will be saved from investments that would have otherwise gone into developing support systems at various airports in the country, Khola said.

Initially, the system will be used only for navigation. The system will later on be extended to aircraft approach and landing.