FROM BUSINESS WORLD 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.
