Opening Of Chinese Skies A Threat

With the Chinese airspace to be completely opened for air traffic soon, competition is knocking at the doors of AAI, as airlines will have the option of routing their flights through another corridor. At present, Indian airspace is the only corridor connecting the East to the West.

AAI will have to make its tariff rates extremely attractive and modernise its equipment if it wants to earn more revenue. Once the Chinese airspace is fully opened, pilots can make use of ground navigational aids of India without their airlines paying any fees to AAI.

With the help of R-NAV (route navigation), pilots can make use of data available from different ground navigational aids (VHF omni range) and create the best available route to fly to its destination. R-NAV homes in all the navigational aids lying on the path of the aircraft to create the shortest route.

 

If the pilot decides to navigate his aircraft on Chinese airspace as per the course charted by R-NAV, his airline will have to pay charges to the Chinese authorities even if he takes the help of navigational aids lying in Indian airspace.

Meanwhile, the International Air Traffic Association has turned down AAI's plea to hike its navigational fees and has, instead, asked it to give rebate for making timely payments.