The Union government has decided to speed up the divestment of Indian Airlines and has set a deadline of March 2001 for it, according to Ravindra Gupta, the Union civil aviation secretary.
Gupta said that the pace of divestment in Indian Airlines will gain momentum after the global advisors for the sell-off process are finalised. Last week, the domestic carrier invited bids for global advisors.
Regarding the smaller capacity aircraft for Indian Airlines, Gupta said that the ministry is examining the report on the purchase of aircraft. He said that the ministry is in favour of Alliance Air buying turboprop aircraft rather than Indian Airlines opting for it.
Smaller aircraft can be run more profitably than Boeing 737s on several routes, he opined.
He said that while in the US and Europe, smaller aircraft operations to remote and unidentified areas are underwritten by state government, it is not practiced in India.
All future aircraft purchases will be linked to the type of routes the airlines wants to operate on, he added. Citing an example, he said that in Uttar Pradesh turboprops can be used profitably in 12 places.
Gupta said that he favoured the acquisition of smaller aircraft by airlines as it would result in the expansion of the aviation industry.
He blamed the grounding of Vayudoot on inefficient management and said that many of Vayudoot flights ended up as inaugural ones.
Touching upon several issues, including the operations to Nepal, the civil aviation secretary said that the ministry is examining the task force report submitted on the security arrangements in Nepal.
A final decision on the resumption of flights will be taken only after examining the report, he said. On the proposed new civil aviation policy, Gupta said that he has received feedback from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and is expecting several suggestions from the public and financial bodies.
