• PM Inaugurates the first airport in Sikkim at Pakyong.
• Before this, the people from Sikkim has to travel 100 KM to West Bengal to travel in airways.
• The Chinese border is just 60 Km from this airport, so this airport has a strategic advantage.

Why Airways are Important:

• It is an important enabler to achieve economic growth and development.
• It facilities domestic economy to integrate with national economy and national economy with International.
• It helps in fast mobility by which it promotes trade in goods and services, Tourism, Business (Start – Up’s) and create employment.

The Government of India measures to Regulate Civil aviation:

• Ministry of civil aviation is responsible for formulating national policies and programs for development and regulation of civil aviation sector.
• Concerned legislations ‘Aircraft act, 1934, Aircraft rules, 1937 and other minor legislations.

Organisations

• Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)
• It is a regulatory body.
• Primarily deals with safety issues
• Responsible for regulation of air transport service within India.
• The DGCA also co-ordinates all regulatory functions with International Civil aviation Organisation (ICAO).
• Bureau of Civil Aviation security – (BCAS)
• It was initially setup as a cell in the DGCA in January 1978 on the recommendation of the Pande Committee. Later it was recognised as independent Organisation.
• It lays down standards and measures with respect to security of civil flights at international and domestic airports in India.
• It has Head quarter’s in New Delhi and regional office in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
• Commission of Railway Safety
• The Commission of railway safety works under the administrative control of this ministry.
• It deals with matters pertaining to safety of rail travel and train operation and is charged with certain statutory functions as laid down in Railway act (1989).

Air India Ltd.

• The Company was created to facilitate the merger of two main state – owned airlines in India: Air India and Indian airlines. Hotel corporation of India also comes under this.
• It incorporated under ‘Companies act 1956’

Airport Authority of India

• It was formed by merging the international airport authority of India National airports authority.
• It was created to accelerate the integrated development, expansion and modernisation of the operational, terminal and cargo facilities at the airport in the country

Pawan Hans Helicopter’s Ltd. (PHHL)

• It is the first ISO 9001:2000 certified aviation company in India
• Its Objective is to provide Helicopter support services to the oil sector for its off – shore exploration, services in remote and hilly areas, and promoting travel and tourism.

Schemes from Government of India

UDAN Scheme

• Regional Airport connectivity scheme and its objective of ‘Let the common citizen of the country fly’.
• The First component is to develop and enhance new and existing regional airports for scheduled civil aviation flight from 70 to 150.
• The Second component is to add several hundred financially – viable copped – airfare new regional flight routes to connect more than 100 Underserved and unserved airports.

National Aviation Policy

Objective:

• To create an eco-system to make flying affordable for the masses both domestic and international.
• On the other hand, cargo volumes should increase to 10 million tonnes by 2027.

Key Features of the Policy are:

• “0/20” norm:Earlier, a domestic airline could start international operations only after five years of domestic operations and having a fleet of at least 20 aircraft. As per new rules, they will be required to deploy 20 aircraft or 20% of the total fleet size, whichever is higher on domestic routes to get international flying rights.
• Change in Security personnel: Private security agencies comprising of retired personnel from military and Para-military forces will be encouraged for non-core security functions at the airports.
• Code sharing agreements: Indian carriers will now be able to enter into such agreements with foreign carriers for any destination within India on a reciprocal basis.
• Open Sky Policy: India will have this policy for countries beyond the 5000 km radius from Delhi on a reciprocal basis.
• This means that airlines from European or SAARC countries, will have unlimited access, in terms of number of flights and seats, to Indian airports, leading to increased flight frequencies with these countries.
• Growth of helicopters: This will be supported to provide connectivity to remote and inaccessible areas. Separate regulations for helicopters will be notified by DGCA.

• DGCA: Necessary administrative and financial flexibility will be provided to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for an effective aviation safety oversight system and for creating a transparent single-window system for all aviation safety related issues.