Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia has formed three committees to advise him on critical issues of the industry. The three advisory committees for airlines, airports and maintenance and repair organisations and flight training institutes, comprise CEOs and promoters.
With Scindia himself chairing the committees, the group will meet once every month to sort out issues, which can be regulatory or financial, said a person aware of the development.
Scindia, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the Indian National Congress (INC) in March 2020, is the son of late INC politician Madhavrao Scindia, who too held the civil aviation portfolio under former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao’s government between 1991 and 1993.
“Co-ordination between the government and industry is very critical now as civil aviation has been one of the worst hit sectors by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Hence, through this arrangement, industry captains can straight away regularly make the minister aware of the issues that need urgent attention,” the person said.
The committee for airlines consists of airline promoters- Rahul Bhatia of IndiGo, Ajay Singh of SpiceJet, Ness Wadia from Go Air, Sunil Bhaskaran, CEO of AirAsia India, Bhaskar Bhat, chairman of Vistara and Raiv Bansal, CMD of Air India.
According to the circular reviewed by Business Standard the committee will advise the government on steps required to- improve domestic and international connectivity, improve financial viability of airlines and other regulatory issues.
Similarly the committee on airports has representation from GBS Raju, head of airports division at GMR group, Hari Marar, CEO of Bangalore International Airport, Jeet Adani- head of airports business at Adani group. The group will be meeting every month to suggest steps required to enhance airport capacity, infrastructure modernisation and…