After the Centre?s nod for its fourth international airport, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has started zeroing in on aviation as Kerala?s area of core competence. The go-ahead for Kannur airport has buoyed the VS Achuthanandan government enough to reopen the forgotten budget airline project.
One may recall that while former chief minister Oommen Chandy was gung-ho about setting up the Rs 100-crore Air Kerala, the Achuthanandan government had not even mentioned in its list of priorities.
But all this has changed since the delegates to the recently held Pravasi Bharatiya Divas met him, promising support for the airline. For the first time, the Left hardliner has made a commitment to visit Gulf countries.
Last week, Achuthanandan?s emissaries were knocking at doors of civil aviation minister Praful Patel?s in New Delhi to explore of LDF?s new-found comradeship with the public-private partnership (PPP) format could be made flexible enough to fit the Centre?s norms for new overseas air carriers.
Earlier, Patel had turned down the idea of a state-owned overseas airline operator. One, the norms required that an overseas licencee applicant should have five years of continous operations in the domestic sector. Two, the proposed airline should have a minimum 20-aircraft fleetsize.
This means that Kerala would need to team up with an experienced and fleet-owning domestic airline, before rustling up its NRI capital. Earlier, the state had, through Cochin Internationl Airport, India’s first greenfield PPP airport, prepared a feasibility report with the help of Ernst & Young. This report had not factored in an existing airline partner.
State minister (in charge of aviation) M Vijayakumar confirmed that the Air Kerala proposal was alive again. “So are aviation prospects for the state,” he said. Kerala’s Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy, too, has sought upgradation as an international pilot training centre.
However, geography gets more credit than policymakers for taking the state on an aviation trajectory. A-I is setting up a Rs 50-crore maintenance hub near Thiruvananthapuram airport. Close by, the Indo-Russian BrahMos Aerospace has vowed to invest Rs 1,000 crore in four years. ??ISRO and BrahMos are parked in the Kerala capital because of the strategic access to earth’s magnetic equater,?? says Siva Thanu Pillai, CEO, BrahMos Aerospace.
Equally crucial is the demand-pull development from 20 lakh Gulf expats. Mid-income NRI families are irked by the Centre keeping the budget segment of Kerala-Gulf routes as Air-India and Indian Airlines preserve.