AirSewa to make grievance handling more transparent: Rajiv Nayan Choubey

Civil Aviation Ministry recently launched AirSewa, an app that fliers can use for putting forward their grievances against airlines and airports. Civil aviation secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey spoke to Shahkar Abidi on the sidelines of an event held in New Delhi where he discussed about changes that are taking place in the industry as part of the new aviation policy.

Small aircraft operators are concerned that the current cap on viability gap funding (VGF) under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) is not feasible for them.

The ministry, in fact, studied the demand for more subsidies for smaller aircraft and found it indeed to be not feasible at current cap. So for relatively smaller aircraft, say, a 20-seater aircraft, the VGF will be substantially higher. It may be around 30% higher than those for ATRs, which may make their operations feasible. We are going to put it out soon.

How many players have so far applied for RCS? Also, will just bidding for the scheme make these airlines eligible for RCS?

So far, around 25 players registered, out of which 5 were double registrations. So, there are in total 20 players which included scheduled and non-scheduled operators. Also, based on the consultations, we will be permitting those who have applied for a licence. Those who may not have a licence today may apply, but bank guarantee requirement would be higher. Bidding for RCS does not automatically make them eligible for it. They will have to first become a scheduled operator. There will also be a deadline for which one has to start operations after getting the permission to start flying under RCS.

How is AirSewa app different?

In earlier measures, the complaint was mainly dealt between the passenger and the airline/operator. With AirSewa, you will have a big brother watching as a result of which the entire system becomes more transparent. This is sure to give assurance to the aggrieved passengers and also push the airlines/airport operators to remain on toes and try to solve their issues at the earliest. In future, we may even decide to go public with the data and give star ratings to the airlines and airport operators based on their performance and grievances solved.

Can you explain the back office operations for grievance handling?

Each grievance shared will be directed to the concerned nodal agency for resolution, based on the grievance category chosen by the complainant. Each of these complaints will be categorised as pending within time line, pending beyond time line and closed grievances.