In what comes as respite to the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the civil aviation ministry has said air traffic control (ATC) operations would be conducted as the company's fully-owned subsidiary.
According to earlier plans, ATC operations were scheduled to come under a separate company, but this would have hit the revenue of the state-owned airports operator.
“We have decided the separate ATC company would function as a fully-owned subsidiary of AAI, and not as a separate company. We may allow it to function as a separate company at a later stage, maybe in around eight years,” said a senior ministry official, who did not want to be identified.
AAI wanted the new subsidiary to function as its subsidiary, as ATC operations account for over 60 per cent of the airport operator's revenue. As of now, the air navigation service comes under AAI. The rest of the revenue comes from the operations of 87 airports across the country, with only 15 airports recording profits. AAI earned Rs 4,186 crore and made a profit of Rs 687 crore in 2008-09. The new company would be called Air Navigation Services Corporation of India.
The equipment used for ATC operations would be transferred to the new entity. Buildings with ATC offices would remain AAI's property.
Revenue from ATC operations include charges for route navigation facilities, terminal navigation and instrument landing. Every time an international flight uses India's airspace, it pays a fee for ATC services.
Analysts feel ATC services should be conducted under a separate company, since the aviation industry in India has grown by leaps and bounds, and is seeing growth of around 20 per cent. “ATC services are completely different from building and managing the terminal buildings and runways. ATC operations require technical expertise and should technically proficient people should manage them. A separate company would offer more freedom to look into their needs,” said an ATC officer.
ATC faces a staff crunch across the country. There are 1,800 ATC officers across the country, far below the required strength. This is seen as a major contributor in the increasing incidents of near-collisions. The staff strength needs to be augmented by an additional 400 officers. The government has been hiring retired ATC officers, both from the civil and armed services, to bridge the gap.
The process for hiving off the company started over a year back with the creation of a post called member (air navigation services) on AAI's board to monitor ATC's functioning. Before this, the job was handled by member (operations).
