Airline licences lapse as carriers avoid taking to skies in slowdown

New Delhi: Several start-up carriers that were given licences have not been able to begin operations, leading to the expiry or revocation of such permissions. This has put a question mark over whether they will eventually be able to take to the skies.
Of the some 10 licences given out by the civil aviation ministry over the past three years to cargo and regional carriers, just three have been able to operate, and that too a limited number of flights, according to the ministry.
The failure by the others to even start operations comes at a time of falling air passenger and cargo traffic in the country, seized by an economic slowdown. Analysts estimate national carriers made losses of around $2 billion (around Rs9,500 crore) in the fiscal year gone by.
The country’s airlines are largely divided into three categories: national carriers such as National Aviation Co. of India Ltd-run Air India and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd; cargo carriers such as Blue Dart Aviation Ltd; and the likes of Club One Air that are charter aviation operators.
In 2007, the ministry of civil aviation, buoyed by air passenger growth rates of 40%, introduced a new category for airlines to increase regional connectivity by offering licences for each of the country’s four different regions.
But almost two years after the announcement, of the several companies that were granted permissions to set up infrastructure to start regional operations, only MDLR Airlines Pvt. Ltd and Jagson Airlines Ltd—both of which already were running charter operations before the regional airlines policy—have flights in operation.
Given the delay, several of the carriers are now seeing their licences being revoked. Aviation rules mandate that if a carrier has not been able to start operations within 18 months of the grant of licence, the permission stands cancelled.
31/05/09 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jun 2009