The Hindu Business Line : A dog fight in the air

The proposed civil aviation policy, which is now with a Group of Ministers (GoM), is likely to face more turbulence if colleagues covering the Defence Ministry have read the signals right. Apparently, Defence Minister A. K. Anthony has gone public that he had many issues with the draft policy and would speak his mind at the meetings of the GoM. The crux of the problem, from the Defence Ministry perspective, is that the policy draft does not recognise the role of the Indian Air Force in the national airspace. As the information goes, IAF operates from 56 airports around the country and more than half of the country’s airspace is its preserve. The draft civil aviation policy seems to have glossed over this fact. As it is, releasing airspace under IAF’s control for movement of civilian aircraft is a major issue with the Defence Ministry and if the aviation policy aims to promote aviation in the country at the cost of the IAF, then a dog-fight is definitely in the air.

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