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The National Civil Aviation Policy 2016 was released by P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, the Minister of Civil Aviation. The policy is comprehensive, covering 22 areas of the Civil Aviation sector. Speaking on the occasion, Raju said that the centre-piece of the policy is to make regional air connectivity a reality. The policy also aims towards affordable and convenient flying for the masses while establishing an integrated ecosystem which will lead to significant growth of the civil aviation sector to promote tourism, employment and balanced regional growth, enhance regional connectivity through fiscal support and infrastructure development and also the ease of doing business through deregulation, simplified procedures and e-governance.
Rajiv Nayan Choubey, Secretary, Civil Aviation (MoCA), Government of India, informed that MoCA has capped one-hour flight at a subsidised rate of Rs 2500. Moreover, the MoCA has replaced the decade-old 5/20 rule with 20 aircrafts to fly internationally. The government has also assured its stand on Open Sky Policy for countries over destinations to 5,000 km from New Delhi on reciprocal basis.
The policy aims at the following:
a. India to become third largest civil aviation market by 2022 from ninth
b. Domestic ticketing to grow from 8 crore in 2015 to 30 crore by 2022
c. Airports having scheduled commercial flights to increase from 77 in 2016 to 127 by 2019
d. Cargo volumes to increase by 4 times to 10 million tonnes by 2017
e. Taking flying to masses- enabling Indians to fly at Rs 2500 per hour under Regional Connectivity Scheme at unserved airports
f. Requirement of five years of domestic flying for starting international operations removed
g. Flexible and liberalised ‘open skies’ and ‘codeshare’ agreements
h. Incentives to MRO sector to develop as hub for South Asia
i. Ensuring availability of quality certified 3.3 lakh skilled personnel by 2025
j. Development of green-field airports and heliports
k. Enhancing ease of doing business through deregulation, simplified procedures and e-governance
l. Promoting ‘Make in India’ in Civil Aviation sector
Industry Reactions:
Palash Roy Chowdhury, Chairman, FICCI Civil Aviation Committee
It is outstanding that the Cabinet has cleared the National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP). It’s a progressive policy-framework towards ensuring a safe and sustainable development of the aviation sector in India. The comprehensive, well thought out policy will pave the way for a balanced aviation growth in the country.
Kousik Bhattacharya, Head-Marketing and B2C Business, VIA
The extra baggage allowance will be an extra cushion for travellers, especially for family segment travellers. The reduction in flight cancellation fees should help boost the trust of consumers and facilitate more airline booking, especially for short-haul destinations where the gap between railway cancellation fees and air cancellation fees has been extremely high till date. The reduction in flight cancellation fee will help in mitigating the gap and thus, get traction from the high-end railway users who were earlier sceptical about the high cancellation charges in flights.
Source: travelnewsdigest.in