Travel News and Updates: aviation industry

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Assam Global Investors’ Summit announces to have the world-class airport terminal in Guwahati. The scheme is set to increase the Assam's connectivity to other areas. The Power schemes worth more than INR 10,000 crore have been initiated in the northeast.

PM Narendra Modi further stated that-
“In the last three years, the government has spent more than INR 5,000 crore on development of railways in the northeast.”
 He added “The construction of 15 new rail lines are underway. Rail connectivity between Tripura and Bangladesh will also be developed,”

Union Minister for the civil aviation P Ashok Gajapathi Raju and the chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal laid the foundation of the new international world-class airport terminal. The project is seen as a major boost to the aviation sector in the northeastern region.

"Transportation and connectivity are the two most important means for economic prosperity. The government of Assam accords top priority to improve communication and wants to engage in the faster development of road, rail, and air linkages as well as internet connectivity," said Sonowal.

source: Travel Biz Monitor

According to the reports, the government introduces 325 more routes to airlines as well as helicopter operators under its regional connectivity scheme (RCS) to enhance flight services to hilly and remote areas, including Kargil.  

Ministry of Civil Aviation, 56 new airports and helipads are being connected to 36 existing aerodromes. The routes have been awarded to 15 airlines and helicopter operators after the bidding process for the second round of RCS, also known as UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik), which aims to connect tier-2 and tier-3 cities and take flying to the masses. Among the major domestic carriers, out of total IndiGo has bagged 20 proposals, SpiceJet got 17 while Jet Airways won four.

"In the second round, we have given RCS routes to helicopter operators also. In all, we got 141 proposals for 502 routes (for both planes and choppers). Letters of award have been given to 90 proposals for 325 routes. Out of these, 129 routes are in a newly created category of 'priority areas' that include Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal, Uttarakhand, North East, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep Islands," R N Choubey, Secretary, Civil Aviation said.

As per the scheme, RCS flights' fares are capped at Rs 2,500 per hour of flight for fixed-wing aircraft and for 30 minutes on a helicopter. This clearly give aviation industry a great height.

source: Travelbizmonitor 

The European Union’s Mobility and Transport Commissioner Ms Bulc has invited India to explore a longer engagement in the civil aviation industry.
Ms. Bulc talked focused on the importance of global agreement on railways and safety, security and improvements in airports.

Which result is the growth in the aviation sector in India. This will explore new career opportunities in the aviation industry in all possible concrete areas.
In an interview, Violeta Bulc said that she met Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Tuesday and had suggested holding an annual aviation summit in India to explore ways to improve safety, security, and the size of airports.

Ms. Bulc said - 

“We shared connectivity issues during our meeting,”  “That's why I invited the minister to consider the next step in our bilateral agreement, which would be a comprehensive aviation agreement. That will, of course, have a direct positive impact on tourism as well.”

She also met Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, where she discussed the issues related to railways and road safety.

She said - “Road safety is at the top of our agenda,”
“It has become a very important global issue. It has been elevated at the UN level as well. The Minister [Mr. Gadkari] expressed an interest in how we approached the systemic issues to decrease road safety, especially fatalities. So, I shared with him our policy attention, and also our Vision Zero, which I invited India to join.”

“One thing that was very effective in the EU was that we started to collect statistics on road safety and compare member states and wherever we saw that there was not such a good performance, we would then engage with the member state and help them make the next step,”

“In engineering, many new features will be introduced in cars, we are working with industry.”

While talking to Mr. Goyal Ms. Bulc Highlighted on the importance of global standards and had also said that there is emerging a need for an international agreement regarding railways.According to Ms. Bulc

“So, we will initiate a joint global event where we can start discussing standardization and regulator alignment on a global scale. We hope that this will emerge next year. There could be potential for a new UN chapter like we have for aviation,”

Source:thehindu

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has recommended new security plan 2017 implemented by states of the first Global Aviation Security Plan (GASeP) and was established this week by ICAO (Indian Civil Aviation Organization)

GASeP created a framework to define the responsibilities in Annex 17 in their national civil aviation security programmes that focus on four major areas -

1) Risk awareness and response
2) Security culture
3)Technology enhancement and innovation.
4)Security oversight and co-operation among states and with local organisations.

In a statement as per,  IATA director general and CEO  Alexandre de Juniac said  “flying is secure, but it is also clear that aviation faces security challenges"

“ Governments have the primary responsibility for the security of their citizens – including when they are flying. But differences in the capacity of governments to do this are clear,”

“The implementation of Annex 17 standards and recommended practices are far from universal. Focused efforts will be needed to foster co-operation and capacity-building to enable states to meet their obligations.”

“We have great expectations for GASeP. But states are sovereign and there is no global security regulator”“So governments must fully feel the weight of their responsibility to protect the security of four billion travellers each year."

“To stay a step ahead of the threats, governments must incorporate GASeP into their national plans and co-operate through ICAO to make sure that the global system works.”

Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called for aviation security to be additionally supported by tending to four key territories; 

(4) the proficient execution of new and existing technology expertise.