The Hindu Business Line : Airlines irked by new rules on delayed flights

Ground reality: The Jet Airways Chairman, Mr.Naresh Goyal, and Executive Director, Mr Saroj K. Datta, briefing the media after attending a meeting of the Federation of Indian Airlines in the Capital on Wednesday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 25 The domestic airline industry is not too happy with the proposed new Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) on delayed flights and implementation of the new ground handling policy and will make a presentation to the Director-General of Civil Aviation and Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AREA) listing out their objections.

At a meeting of the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) here on Wednesday, airlines felt that they alone were not responsible for delays in flights pointing out that several times the delays were caused by airports.

The new CAR being proposed by the aviation regulator will make it mandatory for airlines to pay passengers if the flight is delayed beyond a stipulated period of time.

Besides from January 1, the Government plans to implement a new ground handling policy which will restrict the number of agencies which will be allowed to provide the services. Airlines point out that doing their own ground handling activity allows them to better manage their flight operations.

Briefing newspersons after the meeting, the Chairman, Kingfisher Airlines, Mr Vijay Mallya, said “a committee headed by the FIA Secretary General will make the presentation on both issues. We are keen that the current policy on ground handling continues beyond January 1 next year”.

The Chairman, Jet Airways, Mr Naresh Goyal, the airline Executive Director, Mr Saroj Datta; the Chief Executive Officer, SpiceJet, Mr Sanjay Aggarwal; the IndiGo President, Mr Aditya Ghosh; and the Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, Mr Arvind Jadhav; attended the meeting.