Indian Civil Aviation’ completes 100 years in the year 2011. On February 18, 1911, the first commercial plane flew in India between Allahabad and Naini carrying mails.  To commemorate this milestone, ‘the year 2011-12’ is being declared and celebrated as the “Civil Aviation Centenary Year”.

            ‘Civil aviation in India’ has grown manifold and today India is the ninth largest aviation market in the world. The economic slowdown of the year 2008-09 had affected the airline industry as well. However, unfazed by the reverses of the year 2009 there has been robust growth in terms of aircraft movement and passengers handled in the year 2010. The growth rate has been 3.4 per cent in respect of aircraft movement and 16.2 per cent in respect of overall passenger movement during the year 2010 as compared to the year 2009. The passengers carried by domestic airlines from January – November 2010 has been 468.09 lakhs as against 393.53 lakhs in the corresponding period of the year 2009 thereby registering growth of +18.9 per cent. Cargo has grown by 26.9 per cent in the year 2010 as compared to the previous year.

            The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) was established on May 12, 2009 with the prim objective of creating a level playing field and foster healthy competition among all major airports, encourage investment in airport facilities, regulate tariffs of air nautical services, protection of reasonable interests of users, operate efficient, economic and viable airports. AERA is in the process of formulating approach, philosophy in economic regulation of airports and air navigation services for regulation of tariffs in consultation with stakeholders.

            Recently, issues relating to tariff for Air line passengers, the manner in which it is disclosed to public affecting transparency etc. have been raised. Consumer interests have assumed paramount importance. Appropriate regulatory framework to protect interests of consumers at large has become a crucial area. It is in this background that a ‘Civil Aviation Economic Advisory Council’ was set up by the Government on December 9, 2010 under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Civil aviation and with Members drawn from different fields of expertise that are directly and indirectly connected to Civil Aviation Sector, to elicit the views of stakeholders, to gain expertise from the concerned experts and to augment capacity to address issues that are predominantly economic in content.

            In the area of passenger facilitation, guidelines in the form of Civil Aviation Requirements (CARs) have been issued. CARs has been issued in connection with minimum requirement for refund of ticket purchased by persons/passengers with respect to air transport undertakings including scheduled and non-scheduled operators and also for compensation and facilities to passengers in case of denied boarding, cancellations and delays. The violation of this CAR is punishable attracting a maximum penalty of six months  imprisonment or two lakh fine or both. With regard to use of mobile phones, the relevant rules have been amended to provide that Pilot-in-Command may permit the use of cellular phones after the aircraft has landed and cleared active runway. However, this facility will not be available during low visibility conditions.

            On bilaterals, keeping in view the recent developments in the Civil Aviation Sector, and with a view to modernize and update the existing Air Services Agreements (ASAs) with foreign countries as per the ICAO templates, bilateral air services consultations were held in the year 2010  with Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Ireland, Brazil, UK and Iran and the respective ASAs have been amended and finalized. Also, Bilateral Air Services Agreements were formally signed with Bhutan, Iceland, Nepal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Africa and Iran. Apart from these, new Air Services Agreements (ASAs) have been initialized with Senegal, Barbados and Rwanda.

            Further, a high level delegation led by the Civil Aviation Minister participated in the 37th Assembly Session of ICAO held at its headquarters at Montreal in Canada from September 28 –October 8, 2010. During the Assembly Session, elections were also held for the representation of the Member State Countries in Part I, Part II and Part III of the Council of ICAO. India contested for continuance of its representation in Part II. India was successfully re-elected to the Council of ICAO.

            Technical co-operation agreements were signed by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) with the Nepalese and Afghan Civil Aviation authorities in order to provide active technical support including training of personnel to these countries by India to promote and develop Civil Aviation Sector.

            The India-US Aviation Joint Group meeting on Security was held in New Delhi on  January 20-21, 2010. During this meeting two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on deployment of Air Marshals and Co-operation in Airport Technical Visits were signed between the Government of India and Government of United States of America. The two MoUs mark the beginning of an ongoing co-operation between the two countries in matters of security.

            The 16th World Route Development  Forum was held from  September 19 to 21, 2010 in Vancouver (Canada),  where 3000 delegates from 130 countries represented the event including 400 airlines.  An Indian delegation of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Airports Authority of India, GMR, GVK besides representatives from Air India, Kingfisher, Jet airways, Indigo etc. and India hosted the largest ever exhibition common pavilion in the Networking Village.

            Air India is the national carrier of the country. The present paid up equity capital of air India Limited is Rs. 145 crores which is not sufficient for an aviation company of its size. Air India Limited while facing an acute financial crisis approached the Government for equity support. The company, was advised to come with a restructuring/turnaround plan. The restructuring/turnaround plan submitted by Air India Limited was first considered by the Committee of Secretaries and thereafter by the Group of Ministers. The GOM approved infusion of equity to the extent of Rs. 2,000 crores in five equal installments subject to Air India Limited achieving the specified targets for it. While Rs. 800 crores was made available in March, 2010, a provision of Rs. 1200 crores has been made in the current financial year. The equity induction would ease the cash flow situation of the company and preclude borrowing from the markets at high costs to this extent. A turn-out and restructuring plan of Air India is also under active consideration.

            Haj 2010 operations commenced in October 2010 and concluded in the month of December same year. Around 1,26,000 Haj pilgrims through Haj Committee of India performed the Haj pilgrimage. A fare of Rs. 12,000/- per pilgrim was charged. The Government provided air charter for this operation from 21 embarkation points viz. Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Patna, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Srinagar, Guwahati, Aurangabad, Varanasi, Indore, Ranchi, Mangalore, Bhopal, Delhi, Calicut and Goa. Bhopal and Goa were new points for Haj, 2010. During Haj 2010 the air charter was selected through sealed tender on competitive bidding from qualified operators. This has resulted into substantial savings on subsidy outgo.

            On the Airport side, the Government has formulated a policy for Greenfield airports on April 24, 2008. The new policy aims to streamline the approval process to facilitate strengthening and augmenting of airports infrastructure in the country.

            A Greenfield airport was commissioned in March 2008 at Shamshabad, Hyderabad. Another Greenfield airport was commissioned on May 24, 2008 at Devanahalli, Bengaluru. A state of the art new integrated Terminal–3 has been operationalized at the Delhi airport in July 2010 creating a new beginning in world class infrastructure, with public private participation in the aviation sector. This is India’s biggest and 8th largest terminal in the world covering 5.4 million sq.ft. area with a capacity of handling 34 million passengers per annum covering both international and domestic passengers. It has 168 check-in counters, 24 remote check-in counters, most modern 5 level on-line baggage system, 98 immigration counters, 78 aero bridges, multi-level car parking (4300 cars capacity), 3000 CCTV, 352 Screening machines etc.

            The Navi Mumbai airport has finally got green nod from the Ministry of Environment. The proposed new airport would have sufficient capacity so that it can handle additional traffic, which is likely to go upto about 80 mppa by the year 2031-32.

            Airports Authority of India (AAI) took up two mega projects at Chennai and Kolkata airports. The work involves complete modernization and development of the Airports. Uptil November 2010 physical progress was 68 per cent and 51 per cent respectively at these two airports.

            AAI is undertaking up-gradation and modernization of 35 non-metro airports in the country in a time bound manner. In pursuance to Committee of Infrastructure’s decision, AAI has initiated the process for preparing the tender document for city side development of selected 24 non-metro airports through Public Private Participation (PPP). Meanwhile, the scope of city side development has been restricted to the activities of commercial development of property on city-side, car part and cargo operations.

            On connectivity, National Transport Development Policy Committee (NTDPC) has been constituted by the Government under the Chairmanship of Dr. Rakesh Mohan on February 11, 2010 to assess the transport requirements of the country for the next two decades and to recommend a comprehensive and sustainable policy for meeting the transport requirements keeping in view the comparative resource cost advantages of various modes of transport. Under the NTDPC, five Working Groups have been constituted. A working Group on Civil Aviation Sector for the NTDPC was constituted on July 19, 2010 under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Civil Aviation. Further, five Sub-working groups have been constituted to provide inputs for final formulation.

            CASP-AP is ‘Cooperative Aviation  Security Programme – Asia Pacific’. India shall assume the Chairmanship of this programme for the year 2011-12 in the 8th CASP-AP Steering Committee Meeting in April, 2011.

            The 2nd regional Aviation Security conference is being hosted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation from  February14-18, 2011 under the aegis of ICAO. The aim o the conference is to review aviation security activities underway and planned by States as per he declaration of the 37th ICAO assembly in October 2010. Approximately 15-20 countries would be represented in the Conference.

            A national level Advisory Committee on Civil Aviation Security has been constituted in compliance of Annex. 17 of Chicago Convention to discuss on a quarterly basis security issues at national level.

            In order to strengthen aviation safety and enhance consultation process with stakeholders, a Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council has been set up under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Civil Aviation.