The first ever civil aviation policy since Independence is full of promise and this will definitely prove a game changer in the aviation sector. The new policy envisage the Private Airlines that have 20 aircraft flying domestically can start flying abroad from the 21st aircraft onwards and that is good news. The most encouraging report is that the flights between a served airport and an unserved airport to have airfare cap of Rs.2500 per passenger for one hour flight. The Government is going to revive 350 dormant airstrips to cater to the flights of the unserved airports are to be financed through a small levy per departure. Main aim of the Prime Minister is that more and more Indian should fly high and the number of air tickets sold annually must increase from 8 crores to 30 crores by 2022. The proposed RCS will be funded through viability gap funding, essentially a subsidy through a small levy per departure on all domestic routes other than flights to small towns and on smaller air crafts. While this may mean passengers will have to pay more while flying on metro routes, the Government feel that this levy will not be much and will be a meagre one. The new aviation policy is passenger friendly and is at its best.
Nickil Mani
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
