Air India takes to skies on July 15

Revealing this, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel today said a massive route rationalisation exercise was already on and personnel of both the national carriers were working out unified flight schedules for the new entity.

The Civil Aviation Ministry is of the view that leveraging the combined assets of both the national carriers will results in huge gains. “To give you one example, route rationalisation on the India-Kuwait route will bring in a benefit of Rs 80 crore annually to the merged entity,” Patel said. Accenture, the consultant advising the ministry on the merger, is working on route rationalisation and rescheduling.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Ministry is planning to review the restriction requiring an airline to have five years of experience in domestic flying before it can be allowed to fly internationally. “Instead of a blanket review, there will be a review on case-to-case basis. For instance, we’ll see whether there is a requirement on some sectors and whether carriers have the capability to operate on them,” Patel said, adding that the guideline stipulating a minimum fleet of 20 aircraft before a carrier can fly abroad would continue.

On the issue of rising ATF prices, Patel said, “We’ll try to come out with innovative solutions to tackle the issue. We will pressurise Oil PSUs on the matter. Also, options of bringing in competition so as to get the best prices will have to be explored.” The minister added that private players like Reliance had already started supplying ATF to some airports and others like Essar and Shell may do so in future.

Patel said he had asked Air India to make a big European hub on the lines of Jet Airways so as to enable flights to stop there before moving on to the United States. On Indian (Airlines) approving a scheme to permit “not-so-young cabin crew” to voluntarily opt for retirement or ground duties, the minister said his ministry would examine ways to keep a younger crew without asking people to leave the organisations.

Ban on inflight liquor: Govt open to relook

The Civil Aviation Ministry is open to taking a fresh look at the restrictions on serving liquor onboard domestic flights. “In the past, there was no real reason other than a few incidents that led to the ban being imposed. This issue is not related to either safety or security. Serving liquor is still allowed on international flights. However, there’s no proposal from any quarter on this as of now. But we’ll look if needed,” Patel said.

Recently, Kingfisher chief Vijay Mallya had made out a case for allowing Kingfisher Airlines to serve wine and beer on-board its domestic flights saying he had already approached the Government seeking permission and was awaiting a response. Mallya had reasoned that if both national carriers could be allowed to serve liquor on board their international flights touching more than one destination in the country, why couldn’t the domestic carriers be allowed the same. Currently, no domestic airline in the country is allowed to serve liquor a flight.