Patel moots idea of merchant airports

In a bid to  improve capacity utilisation of the existing airports in the country, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said the government is planning to equip all airports with night landing facilities by the end of this year. At present only 35 of the 117 airports in the country have the equipment installed.

Inaugurating the Business Standard Open Sky aviation summit, Patel also mooted the idea of setting up new merchant airports to ease airport congestion. "Aviation growth should not be witnessed only through congestion in the airports of Delhi and Mumbai. Growth must be seen in other parts of the country as well," Patel said adding that more merchant airports by the private sector would help in achieiving that goal.

Making a pitch for the private sector to invest in airport infrastructure,
Patel said: "The government is only a facilitator for handling security. For airport development, a lot of contribution has to come from the private sector." The minister said that there are about 500 airstrips in the country of which only 160 are in use and this offers scope for development by private players.

Responding to a question on how the manpower shortage would be addressed Patel said the government would set up two institutes on the lines of the IITs for training flight technicians and engineers. He also said that the air traffic control (ATC) training school in Allahabad would be upgraded.

Responding to demands from many carriers that there be competition amongst airports to ensure the best services for air travellers, Patel said there were many cities like Delhi and Mumbai that require more than one airport. While admitting that 'availability of land' was becoming a key issue for setting up new airports, he cited examples of countries that were building modern cost-effective airports within the limited space available. "Look at Lutton in UK ... it is set up on only 200 acres of land and handles about 400 to 500 flights a day. So, airport development can be done in a cost effective way," he said.

Dwelling on the controversial issue of sharing air space available with the defence services for civil aviation, Patel said with more and more carriers coming in with new planes there is a need for more sharing of air space.

Internationally, air space management is undertaken jointly between civil aviation and defence services and when defence airspace is not being used for the purpose it is made available for civilian use. The minister also said a satellite-based navigation system will be operational across the country by next year which will help in more efficient management of airspace-and the airports were being upgraded to work with the new system.

He also said that the country had a major potential in the development of cargo freight-and the government is planning to increase the FDI limit from 49% to 74% to get more investors.

"If Fedex and others can fly 500 planes, there is no reason why we cannot develop cargo in the country especially with the retail boom happens happening and the need for logistics becoming important". Patel said that apart from Nagpur, which is being developed as a cargo hub, there was a need to have such centres in various parts of the country and he hopes there will be around 500 cargo planes in the next ten years.

To encourage others avenues in aviation, Patel said the government is also planning higher FDI limits in helicopters, charter planes and sea planes and hopes to have over 1,000 helicopters in India in the next ten years.