Replying to a question from DMK MP A Raja on flight cancellations because of weather conditions, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha Thursday that only 0.3-per cent flights get cancelled because of bad weather and just 0.2-per cent owing to commercial and operational reasons. Raja, who said such cancellations trouble people who are flying for important work, also asked Scindia whether he would devise a detailed mechanism with clear dos and don'ts so that people do not face problems. Scindia said since the fleet size in Indian civil aviation had doubled over the last 10 years, the problem seemed serious from a distance, but assured the DMK MP that just 0.7-per cent of all flights got cancelled for all reasons taken together. He said foggy conditions were reason behind some flights getting cancelled this year, adding that it was very difficult to predict fog. Scindia admitted that in Mumbai, a plane was parked after an inordinate delay and passengers had to have their food on the tarmac. He said the airline should have sent a radio message in advance, parked near a terminal, and passengers should have been given food and brought back to the plane before it started. He said the government had fined both the airline and the airport. “I will not brook any inconvenience to passengers beyond three hours,” the minister said. He said if a flight is delayed beyond three hours, it should be cancelled and passengers should be provided an alternative flight. In his supplementary question, Raja sought to know why flights were sometimes exorbitantly priced and whether the government intended to do something about it. Scindia replied that the sector was a deregulated one and hoped that the MP did not want it regulated by the government. He added that air traffic peaked and went down seasonally; that the Dussehra to New Year period was peak season and monsoon was a lean season. During peak season, Scindia explained, tariffs went up and they came down during the lean season. “We should compare apples to apples and not to oranges,” the minister said, adding that a high-traffic season would be compared with the previous high-traffic season and not with a lean season. He said last June, there was a day with very high traffic as GoFirst suddenly stopped operations. “I held a meeting immediately to rationalise it,” he said. Scindia underlined the growth of the Indian civil aviation sector, saying that India was now the third largest domestic aviation market and also the fifth largest when it came to accounting for both domestic and international flights. Answering a question on Uttar Pradesh, Scindia said the state, which had just six airports, has 10 airports now, and that the number would go up to 16 by year-end. He said that Jewar International Airport in the state – the airport is expected to reduce burden on Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi – would be operational by the end of the year.
