Air navigation infrastructure at airports is being improved
The airlines and airports in India reported losses of approximately Rs.19,564 crore and Rs.5,116 crore in Financial Year 2020-21 due to severe disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Minister of State in the Ministry Of Civil Aviation (Gen. (Dr) V. K.Singh (Retd) said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha on 6 Dec 2021.
Scheduled domestic operations were suspended from 25 March 2020 but were resumed in a calibrated manner from 25 May 2020 with 33% of the capacity and fare capping (lower and upper limit on different sector) to ensure that airlines do not charge excessive fare.
Evaluating the emerging scenario of the Covid-19 pandemic, the capacity restrictions have been relaxed from 18 Oct 2021, and the domestic operations have been restored without any restrictions of the capacity.
Some of the other measures being taken by the Government to revive the civil aviation sector include the following:
Airports Authority of India (AAI) has taken up a development programme to spend around Rs.25,000 crores in next five years for expansion and modification of existing terminals, new terminals, expansion or strengthening of existing runways, aprons, Airport Navigation Services (ANS), control towers, technical blocks etc.
Three Public Private Partnership (PPP) airports at Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru have undertaken major expansion plan to the tune of Rs.30,000 crores by 2025. Additionally, Rs.36,000 crores have been planned for investment in the development of new Greenfield airports across the country under PPP mode.
The Government has accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports across the country. So far, eight Greenfield airports namely, Shirdi in Maharashtra, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala, Orvakal in Andhra Pradesh, Kalaburagi in Karnataka, Sindhudurg in Maharashtra and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh have been operationalized.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate has been reduced from 18% to 5% for domestic Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services.
A conducive aircraft leasing and financing environment has been enabled.
Improvement in air navigation infrastructure at Indian airports is being carried out.
The number of freighter aircraft deployed by Indian carriers has increased from 7 in 2018 to 28 in 2021. As a result the share of Indian carriers in international freighter movements to and from India increased from 2% to 19% over the last two years.
Under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), also known as the Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) Scheme, as on 24 Nov 2021, 393 routes have commenced connecting 62 unserved and underserved airports, including 2 water aerodromes and 6 heliports.
The Government has released over Rs.2,062 crores for revival of unserved and underserved airports, heliports and waterdrome of State Government, PSUs and AAI etc since April 2017 to October 2021. fiinews.com
