Chennai:

The Madras High Court today directed the Ministry of Civil Aviation to make announcements in Tamil mandatory in all domestic flights operating to and from the airports in Tamil Nadu.

The court directive came following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a person, C Kanagaraj, the World Tamil Research Trust President, who urged the court to make announcements in Tamil mandatory in all flights operating from the airports in the state.

Acting Chief Justice D Krishnakumar and Justice K Kumaresh Babu said that courts could not issue a positive direction as sought in the PIL.

The division bench said that the Central government could be directed only to consider a representation made by the litigant within a period of 12 weeks.

The first division bench issued such a direction and disposed of the PIL petition pending since 2021.

The petitioner had contended that announcements in Tamil were being made even in foreign countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

In the submission before the Madras High Court, he asked why should such announcements could not be made mandatory in all domestic flights operated to and from Tamil Nadu.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Civil Aviation Ministry, in an advisory this evening, has asked airlines to ensure there are no “abnormal surcharges” on flights to and from Delhi. This as Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport’s Terminal 1 was forced to suspend operations after a portion of the roof in the departure complex collapsed.

“In view of the unfortunate incident at Terminal T1D IGIA, Delhi, all airlines are advised to monitor any abnormal surge in airfares to and from Delhi and take necessary action regarding the same. Further, cancellations and rescheduling of flights due to the incident may be done without penal charges,” the ministry said in a post on X.

In view of the unfortunate incident at Terminal T1D IGIA, Delhi, all airlines are advised to monitor any abnormal surge in airfares to and from Delhi and take necessary action regarding the same.

— MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) June 28, 2024

Earlier, the ministry had suspended all departures from Terminal 1, which handles around 1,400 domestic flights daily, till midnight.

Around 5 am today, the roof sheet and the pillars supporting them came crashing down, killing one person, injuring at least six others, and affecting flight ops in one of the world’s busiest airports.

With operations hit and flights cancelled, the civil aviation ministry promptly stepped in to ensure passengers were not charged more on the Delhi route.

Low-cost carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet, which operate their domestic flights from Terminal 1, have cancelled several flights and temporarily moved other operations to Terminals 2 and 3.

Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu rushed to the airport this morning and inspected the damage and rescue efforts.

“Following the collapse of the Delhi T1 terminal this morning, I have personally inspected the site. Our immediate priority was the safe evacuation of all passengers from the terminal,” Mr Kinjarapu said, adding that he would see that a thorough examination of the terminal’s structure is conducted by experts to ensure safety.

Heavy Rain In Delhi

Delhi received heavy rain for the second consecutive day today, bringing much-need respite from an unprecedented months-long heatwave. The national capital logged nearly 230 mm of rainfall between 8:30 am on Thursday and 8:30 am today, marking the highest 24-hour rainfall in June since 1936.

The torrential downpour brought life to a standstill in several parts of the National Capital Region. Visuals showed inundated roads, long meandering traffic in most areas of the city, submerged cars vehicles, and stranded people on the roads.

Monsoon In Delhi Soon

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The monsoon is set to arrive in Delhi by the end of this week, the IMD said.

Last year, monsoon hit Delhi on June 26.

Gwalior:

Highlighting the growth potential of India’s aviation sector, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday said now is the time for aerospace players to look at leveraging the opportunities in the country.

Amid the global aviation segment facing headwinds of geopolitical issues and supply chain woes, the civil aviation minister also said India is the “promised land” that can help offset the risks.

The minister was speaking at the International Aerospace Conference on the theme ‘Moving Towards Inclusive Global Value Chain’ in Gwalior, which is also his home constituency. The country is one of the fastest aviation markets in the world, Scindia said adding that the number of air passengers is expected to reach 42.5 crore by 2035 from the current level of 14.5 crore.

“India has tremendous capabilities, possibilities for all of you (aerospace players)… Time has come for all of you to think afresh,” he emphasised.

“Now, it is time for aerospace industry players to supplant themselves in India,” Scindia said and highlighted that there are multiple reasons, including that the number of airports, heliports and waterdromes in the country will increase from 148 to more than 200 in the next three to five years.

The B20 conference has been curated by CII in partnership with the civil aviation ministry and the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers.

“As we talk about our competitive advantage, it is also in the fullness of things and fitness of things that to offset your risks… geopolitical risks, supply chain logistics risks, companies around the world are looking for a new promised land. The new promised land is… India,” the minister said.

According to the minister, civil aviation was once considered an elitist product but the Regional Air Connectivity Scheme UDAN has democratised civil aviation, which needs to grow as a service as well as a product.

“The time is today… I do believe that there is a yawning gap between supply and demand… not only look at India but take that step because this country is the ready platform for you if there is one anywhere in the world,” Scindia said.

Scindia also said that it was the first time in the history of India that an airport was being built in a record time of 15 months.

He was referring to the new domestic terminal at Gwalior airport spread over 2.5 lakh square metres of land and the airport is to be inaugurated in December this year.

Salil Gupte, Chairman, of the CII National Committee on Aerospace, and Head of Boeing India, mentioned the country’s vast potential within the aerospace industry.

With strategic interventions and collaborative efforts, he said India’s aerospace industry will grow from its current valuation of USD 1 billion to USD 10 billion annually.

On the first day of the two-day conference, discussions were around spawning robust aerospace manufacturing with a specific focus on MSMEs, the integration of global MRO services and air mobility, among other topics.

At a session, Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon, who is Madhya Pradesh’s Minister of the Department of Industrial Policy & Investment Promotion, said the state is fully prepared to welcome the potential industrial investors.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

The government’s biggest claim to success in aviation since 2014 is building “74 airports in seven years”, as opposed to the same number built in the seven decades since Independence. However, only 11 of these airports have actually been built from scratch, while 15 airports have fallen into disuse over this period, due to the collapse of almost half the routes launched under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS).

In the recent past, airport development has primarily been undertaken under the RCS, which was launched in 2017 to improve air connectivity for smaller cities, and to redevelop under-utilised airports. This largely involved the revival of old airstrips that were either lying unused or were used sparsely.

The government launched 479 routes to revive these airports, out of which 225 have since ceased operations, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s response to questions from The Hindu.

Beyond the stats

Only 11 greenfield airports have become operational since May 2014, according to the Minister of State for Civil Aviation V.K. Singh’s reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on July 24. These include the airports at Mopa in Goa, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi and Shivamogga in Karnataka, Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, Orvakal (Kurnool) in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala, and Donyi Polo in Arunachal Pradesh.

The figure of 74 new airports, regularly trotted out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, includes nine heliports and two waterdromes. These two waterdromes, built for seaplanes between Gujarat’s Gandhinagar and the Statue of Unity in Kevadia, closed down soon after the PM’s launch in October 2020, as SpiceJet discontinued its flights after a “change in technical requirements”, the airline told The Hindu in response to a questionnaire.

As many as 15 airports, including Sikkim’s only airport in Pakyong, and those in Punjab’s Adampur, Pathankot, and Ludhiana do not see any flights anymore, according to a senior government official.

Subsidising routes

The RCS, also known as the Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik scheme, was launched with the aim of taking flying to the masses by improving air connectivity for tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and subsidising air travel on these routes.

The routes are awarded after a bidding process, and the winning airlines are given certain incentives, along with viability gap funding (or a subsidy) equivalent to 50% of the seating capacity on their aircraft. In return, the airlines sell 50% of their seats at a flat rate of ₹2,500 per hour of flight, in order to make air travel affordable. The cost of the subsidy is borne by Indian airlines flying on non-RCS routes, who pay an RCS levy of ₹15,000 per departure, as per the latest revision that came into effect in April 2023. The airlines further pass the levy on to their passengers on non-RCS flights. A total sum of ₹2,038 crore has been collected as RCS levy.

The scheme also set aside a sum of ₹4,500 crore to revive old airports by recarpeting runways and erecting terminal buildings. Of these, 46 airports have been redeveloped by the Airports Authority of India, and the remaining by State governments and Public Sector Units. The government has so far spent ₹3,490 crore on these airports. The Finance Ministry approved another ₹1,000 crore for this purpose in May this year, for a period of three years.

Commercially unviable

Of the 225 routes that have ceased operations, 128 routes shut down even before completing the mandatory three-year period under the scheme. Airlines found 70 of these routes to be commercially unviable despite the subsidy, while the remaining 58 have been cancelled either due to “non-compliance” by the airline operator, or the airline surrendering routes, or the airline companies shutting down, as in the case of Air Deccan and Air Odisha.

As many as 97 routes shut down after completing the three-year period during which the government provides support. The objective of the scheme was that after the three-year period, airlines would be able to sustain operations on their own without government support, but out of the 155 routes that have completed three years, only 58 have survived.

SpiceJet, which bagged 74 routes — or every one in five routes awarded to airlines under the scheme — now flies on only 20 of them, forcing the AAI to send it multiple show-cause notices, warning that its security deposit would be forfeited.

The airline said it could not operate 12 routes as airports such as Thanjavur, Moradabad, Saharanpur and Ayodhya were not ready for operations. For the remaining routes, the airline said that it “tried hard to establish these markets, but passenger demand remained very low.”