The domestic skies are likely to see close to 580 aircraft flying by the end of the month, up from about 540-550 when an Indian carrier ceased operations in April this year, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Commerce and Housing and Urban Affairs said on Friday.

Without referring to Jet Airways by name, which temporarily ceased operations on April 17, the Minister said that private-sector organisations cannot make mistakes with the expectation that the government will bail them out.

“That is not doable. If we were to go down that road, we would have airline companies, builders, infrastructure players, etc coming to us, which will result in a nanny state. If I had any word in it, I would not give them a cent. We will help you restructure, we will help you overcome problems, we will design an ecosystem where you can have people do their job properly... try and navigate the system,” he said at the Confederation of India Industry’s National Conference.

The Minister was of the view that the civil aviation sector has tremendous potential. The government has every intention of exploiting that potential to make it grow and ensure that India becomes a leader in the sector, he added.

“There are many mistakes that we have made in the past. We need to correct those. We need to provide domestic carriers a level playing field. We have to ensure we reclaim much of the lost space. We have some turbulence in the sky, but I am personally confident that we will turn it around,” he said.

Clarifying that he will not make any announcements on the plans for either the next 100 days or five years, the Minister said that the government has the political mandate, resolve and determination to ensure that the Indian stakeholder not only gets a fair deal in the international system “But we will work over time with you to ensure that happens,” the Minister said.

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