Aerospace Diary

by  Neelam Mathews  - June 29, 2016, 3:00 AM New Indian carrier Vistara stands to be a beneficiary of the long-delayed reforms of the country's air transport policy. [Photo: Neelam Mathews] India released a national civil aviation policy on June 17 after two decades of fits and starts, as the country works to properly develop its fledgling infrastructure and prepare for a forecast 20 percent annual traffic growth until 2020. Within three days of the announcement, India radically liberalized its restrictive foreign direct investment regime by opening ten sectors, including defense and aviation. Ministry of Civil Aviation secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey called June “a fun month,” while admitting challenges of implementation lay ahead and that “nuts and bolts” of the policy still required fine-tuning. “We are concerned that if we fall behind our growth curve, we will face civil aviation slumps,” he said. “We have told OEMs to bring in ...

                                                           Indian Aviation: hazy picture Opinion Neelam Mathews Aug 8, 2012 Things are not good at all in our sector - barring a slight escalation in yields- because of two airlines pulling out capacity. What happens when those two get back on track or another carrier fills in, one wonders. So, the false optimism might be just that, and lows might be around the corner. Some thoughts: One has no idea if Kingfisher has put in another note recently informing the DGCA of reduction in its fleet given that the last time its fleet count rate was around 20. Today with the flying fleet size down to approximately 10 and with appro...

Neelam Mathews March 15, 2012 Hyderabad Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh’s press conference was as tepid as expected at the India Aviation 2012 air show held in Hyderabad. Besides an announcement that India would open up some international routes, without any clarity on how the decision would be implemented, there was nothing else. A query by Aerospace Diary on the timeline for the release of the civil aviation policy was met by the response: “We are looking at a civil aviation authority. We are in discussions on it.” So what’s new? Discussions have been on for over three years on the draft policy that has gathered dust even as infrastructure falls at its edges and investors returned home. I am sure all the foreign and Indian participants would have liked to hear some solid plans with timelines on India looking ahead and keeping pace with China that it always manages to find a comparison to. As usual, it was all generic. Think the time has come to face reality that we h...