Potholes on the runway

It is just as well that the proposal to open up international aviation routes to private Indian airlines, did not make it through Cabinet.

Not because the security argument that was raised is a clincher (it may or may not be, depending on the facts ""which are not public knowledge), but because of several other elements of aviation policy that are either unclear or undecided.

Taking a decision on just one issue, in the absence of clearances on the others, would clearly have been a sub-optimal situation, and unfair to many of the players in the sector.

As for the security argument, it is less than convincing since there is no security threat from even Pakistan International Airways flying into and out of India.

If there is any real doubt, then the allocation of international routes can be made conditional on greater disclosure on all the issues that trouble the security agencies. The real problems lie elsewhere.

The most obvious issue, and which was reportedly raised in Cabinet, concerns the fate of the two public sector carriers "" which have been prevented from expanding their fleet because of the interminable government decision-making process, and which therefore have been losing marketshare.

Indian Airlines, for instance, has not been allowed to buy a single plane since the opening up of domestic aviation and the birth of the private airlines; even now, its proposed purchases are on hold.

To clip its wings in this unconscionable fashion when the market has been made competitive, and to then so define the rules that the bulk of the unexploited routes of the public sector carriers becomes available to just one private carrier, however good its service, is to beg many questions.

The public sector carriers have been hobbled in another way, in relation to the international competition, because domestic aviation fuel costs more than it does abroad.

This has been corrected to some extent now, but only partially. And Indian Airlines is even further hobbled by the number of uneconomic routes it is forced to fly: under the law, all domestic airlines have to fly 10 per cent of their routes in the North-east, but IA does 17 per cent because of political pressures, and loses up to Rs 70 crore annually in the process.

This newspaper endorses wholeheartedly the government's policy decision to open up the aviation sector, to allow private Indian airlines to fly international routes, and to do everything necessary so that the shortage of airline seats into and out of India comes to an end.

However, this welcome policy decision must be implemented in such a manner that one or two companies do not benefit while others are held back.

This means that the public sector carriers should be free to buy the planes they need; their social obligations should not be more onerous than those of their private sector competitors; and if required for purposes of operational efficiencies, Air-India and Indian Airlines should be merged and a hub-and-spoke system developed for linking domestic routes to the country's international gateways.

If nothing else works, then the carriers should be privatised so that they get a level playing field.