15 firms approaches govt to start regional airlines services

The Centre today said it has received application from 15 private companies for starting regional airlines services but none from any of the state governments in the last three years.
Since 2010, the Civil Aviation Ministry has granted permission to nine companies to begin their services.
"No application from any state government to start a new airlines has been received in the ministry during the said period (since 2010 till date)," K C Venugopal, Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, told Lok Sabha in reply to a written query.
In 2010, five applications were received and permission granted to three of the companies; in 2011, four companies had applied and three were given nod to operate.

In 2012, there were five applications and four were cleared, while this year only one company has applied so far, he said.
Replying to a separate question, the minister said there are 463 airports and airstrips in the country of which only 281 are operational.

Of the total airports and airstrips, 97 are of Airports Authority of India (AAI), 138 of Defence, 161 belongs to state governments, six are in joint venture and 61 are private.
Of the 281 operational airports and airstrips, 65 are of AAI, 90 of Defence, 67 of state governments, 53 of private and six are of joint ventures.

On a query on the number of aircraft in the country, Venugopal said as on December 31, 2012, there are 390 aircraft which have operating permits.
Of these, Air India has 99 planes, Air India Charters and Alliance Air 22 each, Jet Airways 96, JetLite 15, SpiceJet 48, IndiGo 62, GoAir 13, Blue Dart 8, Deccan Cargo and recently launched Religare Aviation's Air Mantra have two each and Quikjet has only one aircraft.