The Hindu Business Line : Protection in the skies

THE OWNER of Kingfisher Airlines, Mr Vijay Mallya, has done well to draw the attention of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to the Government's plans to allow airlines with three years (and more) of flying experience in the domestic sector to ply on international routes.

The official argument probably is that only those airlines which have established themselves as credible domestic carriers should be allowed to fly abroad, possibly on the assumption that international flying by Indian aviation companies is a more difficult proposition than operating on domestic routes.

Clearly, this is not acceptable on the very basic ground that the business of flying an aircraft safely and efficiently does not depend at all on "adequate" experience of flying in the domestic skies.

Indeed, reliance on this argument leads to something quite offensive (and, of course, thoroughly unacceptable) as far as government policy on civil aviation is concerned — that domestic passengers can be used to play the role of guinea pigs in the task of testing the efficiency or otherwise of an airline.

Second, it also implies that international air travel is on a "higher" plane than its domestic counterpart, the inference being that an airline will have to graduate from the domestic to the international level, which is arrant nonsense.

As Mr Mallya has rightly pointed out, the impressive increase in the number of passengers in the domestic circuit in recent times knocks the bottom out of this argument

It reduces the difference between the two types of air travel to just a matter of the type of aircraft and different flying guidelines.

Surely, provided the reports on Government plans to allow domestic carriers to fly abroad are correct, the authorities will hasten to deny that any of the surmises outlined above is correct.

In fact, the Government has no choice but to deny all this because in the absence of a denial, and since technically none of the arguments is sensible, its projected policy would appear in its true colours — protectionist ones, the beneficiaries being none other than the public sector and private airlines which have been around in the domestic skies for years now.

In simple terms, these established airlines would like to protect their future international turf from their new low-cost competitors

A foretaste of the looming battle is adequately got from the impressive success which at least one of the new airlines has already recorded in the domestic sector.

Dr Manmohan Singh would do well to take Mr Mallya's stand seriously because what it involves is not merely the fate of the latter's new airline (as also that of Air Deccan) as far as operations in foreign skies are concerned, but the official attitude towards the issue of fair competition in the skies, which should, in the fitness of things, be an extension of the UPA's Government's overall approach to the issue of unwarranted protection of vested interest in the economic sphere.

Indeed, during the past few years (from the mid-1990s, in fact), domestic civil aviation policy has been hijacked by those who have sided with established players, essentially protecting their interest from being weakened by effective competition from newcomers.

It is a shame that a subject as important as "national security" has been repeatedly used to bar foreign airlines from associating themselves with Indian partners willing to set up shop in the domestic skies, the most notable example being the aborted venture between the Tatas and Singapore Airlines.

The issue is simple. If the Government agrees to provide a licence to any company to enter the civil aviation business, and if official policy allows flying abroad by private sector players, there can be no reasonable ground for barring a newcomer to fly in both sectors simultaneously.

With the Government keeping an eagle eye on the safety aspect of flying (which, by the way, is its job) let there be free and fair competition, the core justification for such a policy being the incontrovertible fact that at the end of it all not only will the best flying company reap the rewards, the flying public will be better off too.

After all, the consumer should be the king — even if his feet are up in the air!

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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