Despite the current turbulence in India's commercial aviation space, the government sees robust growth ahead if airlines reduce tariff, induct small aircraft and connect cities beyond metros for which a policy will be announced soon.
In an exclusive interview with IANS, Civil Aviation Minister- Ajit Singh showed interest in expanding connectivity to regional cities:-
· We need more connectivity to smaller cities. There is also the need to build low cost airports at these places. This will surely encourage a growth in passenger traffic.
· Tier II and Tier III cities are the ones that are showing rapid economic growth. These are the places where the aviation service must improve.
· According to the minister, even though India's overall economic growth slumped to around seven percent in the past few years, the domestic commercial aviation business continued to log a robust growth of over 15 percent, notwithstanding a dip in the past eight months.
· As a result of this growth, India's metros are now well connected. The need now is to promote this kind of growth in smaller cities, and that will be our main focus.
· For this, we will soon announce a major policy for regional airlines. We have already hired a consultant for this.
· Airlines must induct small aircraft that can land on short runways, as only 90 runways in the country can handle jet operations. In fact, many out of those 90 runways are non-operational. This leaves a gap-how to connect places which have shorter runways. Airlines are in touch with the manufacturers of small aircraft that can land there.
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