It has been little over 10 months since Ajit Singh, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader, took the reins of the aviation ministry and he has witnessed what could be seen as the ‘worst phase’ of the airline industry. The suspension of Kingfisher Airlines’ licence, strikes at Air India, poor aviation infrastructure and falling air traffic, Singh has too much to fix. In an exclusive interview with Parul Chhaparia, he shares his plans to turn the sector around. Excerpts:

Let?s start with Kingfisher. Do you think there is a possibility for the carrier to be out of the woods?

At the moment, a turnaround for the carrier seems difficult, although it is not impossible. The carrier does not have any flying slot in the winter scheduled for both international and domestic flights. They will have to come up with a plausible plan for both air safety and financial recovery within a reasonable time (for the licence not be be cancelled).

How long can the DGCA and ministry wait before the Kingfisher?s licence is cancelled?

There is no time-line as such. But we (the aviation ministry and DGCA) cannot wait endlessly for them to submit their plans. The airline has to find financial resources and plan accordingly. A call will be taken accordingly.

If Kingfisher’s licence is cancelled, how would impact the airline industry?

If the licence gets cancelled, the lenders, who are already not so bullish about the airline industry, will become more wary of lending to the players in the sector. Then, there are oil companies, airports that the carrier owes significant amounts. The employees will have to struggle to get their compensation. So, overall, if that happens, there would be collateral damage for the industry.

Talking about the industry, the domestic passenger traffic numbers on month-on-month basis have fallen from 45.37 lakh in July to 40.18 lakh in September. How do you plan to arrest such decline?

The decline in passenger numbers is a concern. But, as you know, there is a prolonged economic downturn in the international market.

Even India’s GDP growth is expected to be at around 6% this year. In a bad economic situation, the first thing people do is to cut down on their travel plans.

Since we cannot have much control over global economic factors, we are looking at making air travel more affordable by reducing airport charges. We are also talking to the oil ministry and state governments for lower taxes on jet fuel. If that happens, the airlines may pass on the benefits to the passengers, which may push up the air traffic to an extent.

Considering the financial mess that domestic airlines are in today, do you think there should be some provisions under the aviation guidelines to help them out?

We cannot give cash to any private airline. What we can do and are trying to do is to help all the stakeholders with a better policy framework. For instance, we are going to have a new route disbursal and aircraft acquisition policy.

The idea is to improve connectivity not just in metros but also in the smaller cities. There is a huge potential even in smaller cities. We are also planning to set up a corpus to promote regional connectivity. This has also been approved by the planning commission. Since there is not much money, we are trying to work out the amount that can be put in this fund.

Should there be a deadline for all these initiatives because each time there is a change in the leadership, they (initiatives) are put on backburner and get delayed?

I cannot comment on that. It is up to the government to decide on leadership of a particular ministry or public sector company. So whether it is Air India or any other PSU, such changes are inevitable. I will set up a time frame for the initiatives that I am taking about. Whatever policy changes we are proposing should all be done in the next six months.

Don’t you think shifting of Air India headquarters from Mumbai to Delhi could result in too much interference of the ministry in the airline’s functioning?

I do not think so. The idea is to make the airline more efficient. Since the airline is trying to get funds from the finance ministry and is talking to the oil ministry, the top management already divides its time between Delhi and Mumbai. Also, if the headquarters shifts, it will be easier for the airline to monetise the Mumbai office, which is an integral part of its turnaround. It is not that there would be no employees at the Mumbai office. Mumbai is important as an aviation hub and will continue to be one of main centres of operations.

When do we see the new independent directors inducted at Air India board?

The process of selection is almost done at our level. We are going to send the names to prime minister’s office soon. I cannot tell you the names, but you will be surprised to see the kind of names who are going to join the airline. There are three vacancies and we should get them on board soon.

Shouldn’t the DGCA and aviation ministry get more power so as to monitor the financial health of private carriers and then act accordingly?

Whether a company is making profits or not that is not our main concern. The important thing is to ensure the employees are not at a loss. I do not think giving more power to the ministry or DGCA is going to help that because there is always a possibility that if you grant too much power to a particular ministry or minister, it can be misused and you don’t want that.

Do we see new companies applying for schedule airline licence?

Not really. Though there have been just one or two but since the whole sector is in the crisis, who would want to be a part of it. To have better traffic management, we have asked the present scheduled carriers to submit their operational plans including the number of aircraft that they plan to acquire for the next three seasons. This will prepare us better in case there is a growth in air traffic.