Big daddies of aviation sulk, say govt giving credence to Tata airlines

The four domestic private carriers – IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and GoAir – are feeling left out as the civil aviation ministry has gone ahead with its consultation meeting on the draft New Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP), 2015, on December 30 last year with smaller players Vistara and AirAsia India in their absence.

In their letter to the ministry, a copy of which is with dna, the airlines, who also constitute the airline lobby body Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), have expressed their "disappointment" at the government giving "credence to the views of Tata-promoted start-up airlines", whose Air Operator Permit (AOP) was still under "question" and "sub-judice" in Delhi High Court (DHC).

"We hope that the ministry of civil aviation would give credence in just, fair and balanced manner to the views and representations of the FIA, which consists of more than 95% of the private sector capacity of the country and 80% of the total capacity of the country – the balance being in the public sector with Air India (AI) – and hope they will not be swayed by the two Asian airlines, both in partnership with Tatas," states the FIA letter of January 5.

The FIA members have requested for information on what transpired at the meeting and another meeting that could be attended by them.

The whole issue has arisen due to the promoters of IndiGo, Jet Airways and GoAir not being in town on December 30, when the MCA held the meeting with industry stakeholders for the NCAP.

According to sources, who did not want to be named, IndiGo and GoAir promoters Rahul Bhatia and Jeh Wadia were in the US while Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways was in Dubai. SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh is said to be in town but could not attend the meeting.

"Unfortunately, as already advised in our earlier correspondence with the ministry, top management of most of our member airlines are travelling due to their pre-scheduled commitment and despite their earnest intent are not able to attend the meeting on December 30, 2015, called by the ministry at less than a week's notice," says the FIA's letter dated December 29.

In the same correspondence, the airline representative entity asked the ministry to make "the stakeholder consultation process more transparent and thorough" by making public all submissions by various stakeholders and offer them opportunity to give supplementary comments or rejoinders. They had also asked for a meeting with the ministry after January 6, 2016.

However, the ministry is non-communicative about giving a new date to the FIA members who are feeling snubbed.

"The FIA is still awaiting a date and time post-January 6, 2016, convenient to the ministry to hold the meeting with FIA members, who have been serving the country for more than a decade and generate/dispense 80% of the total capacity," the airline association wrote in its recent communication with the civil aviation ministry.

The domestic airline body accused Vistara and AirAsia of sub-serving their international ambition.

"Whose (Vistara and AA) primary interest is to sub-serve their international ambition in creating their international operations as a base out of India in the guise of an Indian airline," the FIA noted in its letter.

The two points of difference between the incumbent and the new airlines are the 5/20 rule, which does not allow airlines with less than five years of experience and 20 aircraft to fly on international routes, and the route dispersal guidelines (RDG).

"Their (Vistara and AA) views, therefore, with regards to scrapping the 5/20 rule and route dispersal guidelines is that of miniscule minority of the industry (around 5% market share in terms of passengers flown) and is only to sub-serve the interests of their parent airlines and therefore suspect, more so, as the validity of their right to operate is yet to be determined by the Delhi High Court," wrote the FIA associate director Ujjwal Dey in a letter to the MCA.