Uncertainty in flights because of some states: Hardeep Singh Puri

The government may not be able to provide a financial bailout for airlines, aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in an interview. And international flights

The government may not be able to provide a financial bailout for airlines, aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in an interview. And international flights are unlikely to resume anytime soon. .Edited excerpts:

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Domestic flight resumption was off to a shaky start on Monday with a lot of confusion and cancellations. Has the situation improved now?

It is not correct to use the term confusion here. There was uncertainty because some states decided to not resume flight operations on May 25. We had multiple discussions with them prior to the announcement on the {resumption of} domestic flights. We also issued a central SOP {standard operating procedure} for domestic travel but many (states) went ahead and issued their own guidelines. Many of their SOPs came in very late and our meeting with the airlines ended by around 9 pm (on Sunday). Many cancellations occurred due to this.

The situation has now stabilised and much better with just six flight cancellations on day two and 445 flight departures ferrying 30,944 passengers and 447 arrival flights with 31,697 passengers. (arriving flights included 24 that departed just before midnight the previous day)

Would it have been more sensible to take states on board prior to the announcement?

We did take states on board from day one, contrary to what is being said. Discussions with them started as early as 15th May; when we announced the resumption on 22nd, we had held several rounds of discussion...we decided to give it three more days. There are issues you have to look at; whether the state is willing to accept -- some states were not keen but when they were told economic activity is needed, they changed their mind; are the airports ready? All our airports were ready on the 15th, airlines were ready but they wanted six days’ notice.

What happened in this was (that) two or three states could not receive flights, they told us very frankly ...so we said you take your time…It is not a question of explaining why but the press became a commentator, it played headlines like “total chaos” and some people said let’s not fly. What is the chaos? The chaos is on some flights being cancelled. What are the reasons some flights are cancelled? It is very clear because the state government has a problem. Second issue was that the SOPs were issued by the states very late. Now the SOPs are in place. Andhra Pradesh has opened up. West Bengal will on 28 May.

A few Covid-19 positive cases have been reported in flights since the resumption. Were you prepared for it?

We are prepared for it. We have taken the precautions at airports where you don’t need any human contact; you print out your boarding pass, your luggage gets sanitized, then you are inside the aircraft with the protective gear and the aircraft is also disinfected. You take as much measures as humanly possible. But I keep saying there is a risk in everything. There is a massive conflict between those who want things to desperately open and go about their work and those who pick up any case and make a big thing about it. Airlines are equipped to deal with cases, if they have a positive case and they decide to ground the crew, the airlines will have to pay that price.

What about international flight operations? Are we prepared to resume them?

I don’t see that happening for some time. International civil aviation traffic is dependent on something completely different, it depends on other countries, international trade and business activity. Will the demand of international traffic continue to be low, what will be the new norm? (Economist) Arvind Panagariya had said (that) even when you had big disruptions earlier trade still picked up globally. I see it picking up again, but it is too early to say. In India we have a pretty stable domestic traffic, it will pick up as people will want to move.

But you had earlier said it could resume by August?

I was asked if you will be able to start international civil aviation by August or September, I had said we could do that even earlier. What does that mean? We have two months to go. The number of people we are bringing back on Vande Bharat (flights for Indian passengers stranded abroad), we are already scaling that up. Our idea was to bring those people back who were genuinely stranded and distressed. But many of the people coming back are not stranded in the manner in which we originally envisaged when the scheme was announced.

How much is your estimate of the total hit on the aviation sector?

You can only do a damage assessment when the resumption has taken place because the damage is on a continuing basis.

Do you see any Indian airline closing down?

I hope not but they are under stress. I am not going to get involved in that but there are two issues involved. As a government we have to be acutely cautious and mindful of all that needs to be done on the health front and make sure people are safe and that is paramount, but equally we also have to conscious about what is happening to the economy. It’s been two months since airports and airlines have not had any revenue, even parked aircraft on ground cost money. And even if you don’t have 100% flights running, you can at least have some cost being recovered.

When can we expect a financial bailout of the sector?

First of all, if financial bailouts were taking place why would so many global airlines have gone bust?... It is a difficult situation. We have given a large number of measures to mitigate their stress. But I am not sure that the system as it is structured right now is geared to giving any bailout. The business model of airlines is particularly precarious. But the government can’t give billion-dollar bailouts. It doesn’t happen for any sector in India. We will support their demands on Aviation Turbine Fuel taxation, that will get rationalized ,among other measures, but we can’t bail out an individual. That will mean we are giving taxpayer’s money to bail out an individual business.

What happens to the Air India divestment plan?

It goes on. Air India has to be divested, there is absolutely no question on that. At this stage, to keep anything (running) by subsidy is almost impossible to justify.

Will we see further easing of restrictions after May 31?

100%, I am speaking in my personal capacity, of course.