Saturday, December 12, 2015

DON'T BALE OUT AIRLINES

FROM THE TELEGRAPH OF 6 OCTOBER 2006


Flying is a pain


Some people are under the impression that the government in Delhi is a pre-reform Congress government; once this impression is formed, every action of unreformed ministers like Arjun Singh will confirm it. This shadow of the past obscures the fact that the government has a few ministers who do live in the present and plan for the future. Amongst them is the aviation minister. He is seized with the urgent need to expand airport capacity, convinced that it should be done by the private sector, and is trying his best to issue contracts for modernization, at any rate of the metro city airports. The first results can be seen in the new private domestic terminal in Bombay. Spacious and functional, it gives an idea of what air travel can be.
Unfortunately it will be long before the futuristic airports arrive. Meanwhile, almost all airport terminals have become nightmarish – overcrowded, uncomfortable and dingy. This is not just due to underinvestment; it is also due to the grant of airline licences to all comers. The result is that there are not enough counters and airlines must often take turns to occupy them. There is not enough seating space; passengers hang disconsolately around the gates for announcement of their flights. And there is congestion in the air, planes have to queue up to take off and land, and time tables have become impossible to adhere to. Things rapidly go out of control in winter when northern fogs delay morning flights; airlines have a hard time flying passengers on the day of their choice, let alone the hour.
Praful Patel held a meeting with the airlines in the last week of September, but it was not to discuss passengers’ misery. It was the travails of the airlines. Some are in trouble because of the low fares they charge; others because they charge princely fares for royal treatment and cannot find enough princes to fly.
However, this is not an issue over which Mr Patel should be meeting airlines. Competition causes discomfort; it should, and it is none of Mr Patel’s business to rescue airlines. At worst, some of them will go bankrupt, and will be sold to more able entrepreneurs.

But the faster traffic grows, the better the airlines’ chances of survival. Traffic capacity is entirely in the ministry’s hands; it is what Mr Patel should be devoting his energies to. Luxury can wait: what is necessary is terminal capacity: the Airport Authority should be putting up temporary buildings as fast as possible. So is runway capacity; the ministry should order automatic landing facilities for all airports, and insist that no pilot not trained in using them can be employed in India. Airport investment is one thing on which the government should not stint. After all, it intent on investing in infrastructure, and airports are infrastructure for tomorrow’s hoi polloi.