Flight control

It has been evident for some time that the DGCAs limited powers had rendered it incapable of coaxing the structural changes demanded by Indias civil aviation sector. Of late,India has also been faced with a threatened safety downgrade by international aviation agencies like the USs Federal Aviation Administration,even as the ICAO prepares to audit the DGCAs oversight record. The fake pilot licences scandal of 2011,which brought senior DGCA officials under the scanner for corruption,severely dented passengers and global aviation authorities confidence in it. Having said that,merely having a regulator in tune with international standards in place will not cure the civil aviation sector of its several ailments. For that,the focus must turn to the civil aviation ministry and its tendency to micro-manage the sector.

Despite posting a loss of Rs 10,000 crore for FY 2011-12,the crisis-hit sector continues to invite competition and investment. But the ministry when it is not throwing good money after bad by providing a sovereign guarantee to Air Indias debts or bailing it out with taxpayers money,as with the Rs 30,000 crore package last year continues to interfere by,say,attaching riders to the number of aircraft private airlines can buy and thereby dictating which small airports they should serve. The ministry sat tight on AIs right of first refusal till it was abolished last year and private carriers were given the signal to expand international operations,just as the government prevented foreign carriers from holding equity in Indian airlines till last Septembers reforms. The ministry needs to step back. That alone will allow a freer growth of the civil aviation sector,the safety of whose operations the proposed CAA will oversee.